Here is a half-baked idea that has been kicking around in my head for a while:

Make 32-bit computer from functional blocks implemented on 8-bit microcontrollers.

For example, you might implement an 8-bit ALU slice, and use 4 of them to implement a 32-bit ALU.

Then have other blocks for memory controller, an instruction pipeline, etc. The architecture would be totally different than the micros it would run on and would have lots of RAM.

It would be interesting to see what kind of speed you could get.

Bob

Nice idee

 

It would be slow as hell.

I would expect something like an instruction cycle 1/100 to 1/10 that of the 8 bit processor. Not expecting a practical computer, but rather a platform an one could use to to study and tune an architecture.

Bob

 

I would expect something like an instruction cycle 1/100 to 1/10 that of the 8 bit processor. Not expecting a practical computer, but rather a platform an one could use to to study and tune an architecture.

Bob

I would likely have a student study something practical like RISC-V at the engineering level needed to design and tune a 32-bit hardware architecture.
https://circuitdigest.com/article/u...ure-and-why-it-could-be-a-replacement-for-arm

 

Hello,

The internet archive has some books on FPGA's:
https://archive.org/details/opensou...rt=-publicdate&and[]=languageSorter:"English"

Bertus