Collaborate Disseminate
The Intel 4004 was among the first microprocessors and one of the first to use the MOS silicon-gate technology. In the decades long race to build bigger CPUs, it’s been …read more Continue reading Supersize Your Intel 4004 By Over 10 Times
[michimartini] over on Hackaday.io loves playing with multivibrator circuits, and has come across a simple example of a ring oscillator. This is a discrete transistor RC-delay design utilizing five identical …read more Continue reading PentaBlinky – When One LED Is Not Blinky Enough
Over at Tiny Transistor labs, [Robo] took it upon himself to reproduce the classic 555 timer in discrete transistor form. For bonus points, he also managed to put it in …read more Continue reading Smallest Discrete Transistor 555 Timer
If we had to pick one part to crown as the universal component in the world of analogue electronics, it would have to be the operational amplifier. The humble op-amp can be configured into so many circuit building blocks that …read more
Pong is a classic from the very dawn of the video game era. Recreating it remains a popular exercise for those new to coding. However, its simple logic makes this game particularly suited to an all-hardware build; something which [Glen] tackles with aplomb.
Not content to take the easy way …read more
Continue reading Building Video Pong With Discrete Components
How many remote controls do you have in your home? Don’t you wish all these things were better integrated somehow, or that you could add remote control functionality to a random device? It’s a common starting point for a project, and a good learning experience for beginners.
A common solution we’ve seen applied is to connect a relay in parallel to all the buttons we want to press. When the relay is triggered, for example by your choice of microcontroller, it gets treated as a button press. While it does work, relays are not really the ideal solution for the …read more
Continue reading Switching: from Relays to Bipolar Junction Transistors
As it turns out, the answer is not 42, it’s 42.3 — thousand. That’s how many discrete transistors spread across the 30 m2 room housing this massive computation machine. [James Newman’s] Megaprocessor, a seriously enlarged version of a microprocessor, is a project we’ve been following with awe as it took shape over the last couple of years.
[James] documented his work in great detail, and by doing so, took us on a journey through the inner workings of microprocessors. His monumental machine is now finished, and it’s the ultimate answer to how a processor – and pretty much everything …read more
Continue reading 42,300 Transistor Megaprocessor Is Complete