top left Image    Vital Statistics



Parameter Value Notes
Data Width 16 bit Op-codes are 8 bits wide
Whilst the internal data paths are all 16 bit, the external data bus is 8 bits wide.
Address Width 16 bit
Number of Registers 7 R0, R1, R2, R3 : General Purpose
PC : Program Counter
SP : Stack Pointer
PS : Processor Status
Clock Speed DC to something Currently looks like about 20kHz.
As well as free running it will be possible to single step cycle by cycle to watch the logic operating.
RAM 256 Bytes Still can't believe I managed to finish it !
PROM 256 Bytes ? Depends how much soldering endurance I have left.
Power ~500W This is dominated by the power needed to drive all the LEDs. The logic itself doesn't take very much.
Weight ~½ ton Bit of a guess at the moment
Number of Transistors 15,300
27,000
For the processor. Note that a fair proportion of these are used to drive the LEDs (pretty much one for one).
For the RAM.
Number of LEDs 8,500
2,048
For the processor.
For the RAM
Area (core) ~15 m2 It's quite thin, 10cm, so volume is "only" ~2 m3
Area (memory) ~3 m2 One bit of RAM takes one square inch. I expect PROM will be about half that (yet to design).


By way of comparison Wikipedia gives these transistor count/area numbers for other processors:

Processor Transistor Count Area
6502 3,510 21 mm2
Z80 8,500 18 mm2
8086 29,000 33 mm2
68000 68,000 44 mm2
Pentium 3,100,000 294 mm2







© 2014-2016 James Newman.