FPGA VAX update

[Sridhar Ayengar]

Brian Wheeler wrote:
> On Wed, 2005-11-02 at 14:16 -0500, Sridhar Ayengar wrote:
> 
>>der Mouse wrote:
>>
>>>>>I guess nobody even considers building a computer from scratch. :(
>>>>
>>>>[...]
>>>>Wasn't there an article a looong time ago about a fellow who built
>>>>his own CPU from TTL parts in BYTE or Microcomputing?
>>>
>>>
>>>I dunno about that, but I once did just that.  I took a digital
>>>hardware design course, and as a term project I breadboarded a little
>>>4-bit computer.  (I think the whole class did likewise, but it was long
>>>enough ago that memory is fuzzy.)  Only 16 words of memory, and 4-bit
>>>words at that, with 4-bit opcodes - not a terribly powerful machine,
>>>but an extremely instructive one to build.  All TTL; the most
>>>complicated building block was a 4-bit ALU chip, a 74181 I think.
>>
>>We had to do something similar in our hardware design course.  We had a 
>>choice.  We could actually etch boards and solder sockets, breadboard it 
>>or simulate it.  We had sixteen banks of sixteen locations, four bits 
>>each.  And we didn't have branch instructions.  Only relative jumps.
>>
>>Most (all but 5?) students simulated it.  I breadboarded.  (I hadn't yet 
>>learned soldering then.)  One guy soldered it.  Probably made a pretty 
>>good souvenir.
>>
>>Peace...  Sridhar
> 
> 
> I took a hardware class where we (each team of 2 students) had to build
> a PDP-8 using PALs, some 74xx chips, a bit of Static RAM, and a ton of
> wire wrapping.  The final exam consisted of the instructor breaking each
> machine in 5 different ways and we 3 hours to fix it.  That was a pretty
> cool class.
> 
> I hear they use FPGAs now in the class...kids these days.

Do they still use the -8 architecture?

Peace...  Sridhar