FPGA VAX update, now DIY TTL computers

[woodelf]

Chuck Guzis wrote:

>Consider the very old Packard Bell PB250--22 bit words, fewer than 400
>transistors and 2500 diodes, 63 instructions.  Power consumption about 40
>watts, exclusive of I/O:
>
>http://ed-thelen.org/comp-hist/BRL61-p.html  
>
>The trick, of course, is to use bit-serial methods.  It seems to me that
>one could greatly simplify construction of a homebrew machine that way.
>We're not doing this for speed, right?
>
>  
>
That is interesting reading.  Are there any of the large 48 bit 
processors still around?
Also TTL and memory is easy to use in 4 bit  sizes, a odd size like 18 
bits is not so
easy to work with.