Collaborate Disseminate
With the performance of modern CPU cores plateauing recently, the main performance gains are with multiple cores and multithreaded applications. Typically, a fast GPU is only so mind-bogglingly quick because …read more Continue reading Make Your Code Slower With Multithreading
One of the designers whose work we see constantly in the world of retrocomputing is [Grant Searle], whose work on minimal chip count microcomputers has spawned a host of implementations across several processor families.
Often a retrocomputer is by necessity quite large, as an inevitable consequence of having integrated circuits in the period-correct dual-in-line packages with 0.1″ spaced pins. Back in the day there were few micros whose PCBs were smaller than a Eurocard (100 mm x 160 mm, 4″ x 6.3″), and many boasted PCBs much larger.
[Mark Feldman] though has taken a [Grant Searle] 6502 design and fitted …read more
Continue reading A 6502 Retrocomputer In A Very Tidy Package
Back in 2015 [Ben Wang] attempted to re-invent the protoboard with the Perf+. Not long afterward, some improvements (more convenient hole size and better solder mask among others) yielded an updated version which I purchased. It’s an interesting concept and after making my first board with it here are my thoughts on what it does well, what it’s like to use, and what place it might have in a workshop.
The Perf+ is two-sided perfboard with a twist. In the image to the left, each column of individual holes has a bus running alongside. Each hole can selectively …read more
Continue reading Evaluating the Unusual and Innovative Perf+ Protoboard