Hello all,

So for Christmas this year I decided I'm going to make an electronic Tic-Tac-Toe board for my wife. She has a strange love for the game, and I figure its a good project to test all the knowledge I've gained from recent coursework.

I have three Intel 8086 CPU's, and I'm pretty sure all the memory chips required (I pulled a bunch of chips from an old board I found at school). I want to use the 8086 solely for the sake of using an 8086 (well that and I already own it). If Bender can be as awesome as he is with it, I'm sure my board game will work My main concerns at this point are:

1) What chips other than the CPU are required for operation?

2) How do I find out how to wire the chips together?

3) What kind of oscillator do I need? Can it run at any frequency below 8mhz, or does it have to be exactly that?

I know how to write a Tic-Tac-Toe program, and my experience in assembly is great enough I shouldn't have any problems there. I was going to use arrays of LED's for display, but I'll worry about powering those and driving them with io later. I've googled for resources on the 8086 for hours but so far the only things I've been able to find are programming help.

 

Using an 8086 for a tic-tac-toe game nowadays is maximum overkill. You'd have a lot of wiring to do.

Why not get a Microchip PICkit 2 dev kit for around $50, and have your tic-tac-toe game running in a day or two?

 

Well as I said, I already HAVE the 8086, I want the entire project cost (including LED's, power, case, etc etc) to be no more than 50, and again I want to use an 8086 just to use one.

 

Well as I said, I already HAVE the 8086, I want the entire project cost (including LED's, power, case, etc etc) to be no more than 50, and again [i[]I want to use an 8086 just to use one.[/i]

If you have never worked on an 8086, then I would suggest that you are about a half-year too late to start! Remember, a microprocessor (8086) does NOT have the built-in parts that a microcontroller (8051) does. You will need to wire in RAM, ROM, decoder chips and other glue logic, and I/O devices. Also, the Address and Data buses are time-multiplexed, which adds more chips. And then there are the interface chips for the display and the keypad, or whatever you are planning for input.

What I am saying is, Unless you want your wife to be disappointed for Christmas, and you to be upset and embarrassed, find another platform for this, or put it off until next Christmas. No, I am not kidding. I have worked with 8-, 16-, and 32-bit microprocessors and microcontrollers as a hobby as well as for a living, and the worst thing about any micro is that it readily complicates the simplest of matters; and that's my professional experience.

--Rich

 

I'm pretty sure I already have all of the other chips, given I pulled everything off of a complete board. I could get by with 5 output pins and 4 input pins for io. There is no display, no keyboard, no nothing. The program would be very small.

If I'm not capable of finishing this by Christmas, then I'll give it to her another time. One way or another I want to do this, and learn how to use a microprocessor. Its a learning experience too! Which is precisely why I asked how to get started.

 

Don't you have a computer that can run the game? I used to play on some old computer running BASIC and would occasionally win -- what does that say for the programmer's ability -- well maybe he/she was just being nice?? Windows based PC's can still run the BASIC interpreter.

But, if you build it properly to consistently follow the simple rules, your wife will never win. For a good reference, sit down with her and watch the movie "War Games."