Make: Technology on Your Time Volume 03

HOMEBREW

Photograph by Joe Holt

My Microprocessor

By Joe Holt

I didn’t set out to build a microprocessor. It just sort of happened. We were building logic circuits in my Logic Machines course at Bennington College. Nothing complicated, just adders and flip-flops made from 70s-era TTL chips. We even wired eight big flip-flops on breadboards to make one whole byte (we estimated 16 square miles to make the memory in my PowerBook).

Over midterm weekend, I brought home parts and breadboards and spread them out on the coffee table. I’d been thinking ...