Where the method of adding is where we will find a great degree of nuance in relationship to different applications. While in hardware, we can look around at variable size, number representation, and different methods of performing the addition itself. (number representation is: integer, fixed precision, floating point, fractions, etc) We can also dive into emulation of one type of number representation that our platform lacks, or in a similar fashion play about with larger variable sizes.
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In software we can look at differences in variable size, and how the number is represented to see how that effects our software. (Though, if software emulation is the thing one desires to learn, then the Gigatron is a very good example.)Ī crude example of differences in abstraction and the things we can focus and learn about would be addition.Ī mathematical representation is: A + B = C There really isn’t all that much more to this than that. Since it practically is a RISC processor emulating more advanced functions through the use of software. This is why I don’t consider the Gigatron as a good platform for learning about computer architectures.
Not to mention that the goal of good software emulation of hardware features is to get the best performance with the hardware at hand, and not about efficiently implementing the hardware for the given application.
In most cases, even a well implemented software emulation tends to fall greatly behind even a semi crude hardware implementation (this isn’t always the case). A software implementation only executing the functions in a software efficient way, is not sufficient to gain this knowledge. While if one desires to learn about different hardware implementations and why certain things are implemented in specific ways for certain applications, then one usually requires a deeper look into the actual hardware. Knowledge of the rules for instruction order and a list of instruction with explanations of what they do, and run it in an emulator for example is sufficient for learning to program on a particular platform. If one desires to learn to program on a specific architecture/platform. Yes, the amount of abstraction should preferably reflect the thing one is aiming to learn. Posted in Retrocomputing Tagged 6502, gigatron, ttl Post navigation
It’s not fast ( about 1/8th the speed of a ), but in the video below you can see a munching squares demo. That changed when the Gigatron got a C compiler, but now somehow we’ve got a logic chip implementation of a 6502 in far fewer chips than are found in an Apple II.
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This is great the biggest downside of the Gigatron is that there was no existing code for the machine when it was first designed. This opens the door to a wide variety of software that’s already written. All of this interacts with the Gigatron’s existing video subsystem, and all code can switch in between the Gigatron’s virtual CPU and 6502 code with just a few instructions. All of the addressing modes have been implemented, along with half of the instructions and most of the status flags. Although it’s still very early in development, the Gigatron can now run 6502 machine code, and in doing so the Gigatron is now the only dual-core computer without a CPU. There’s a thread over on the Gigatron forums for this. Now the Gigatron is emulating a 6502 processor, the same CPU found in the Apple II and almost every other retrocomputer that isn’t running a Z80. While the Gigatron is a popular product in the world of weird electronics kits, the creator,, is going beyond what anyone thought possible. It’s a computer from that era that’s designed with a CPU that’s entirely made of microcode. What if, by some bizarre anomaly of invention and technology, the 1970s was not the age of the microprocessor? What if we could have had fast, high density ROM and RAM in the late ’70s, but the ability to put a microprocessor in silicon was beyond our comprehension? Obviously we would figure out a way to compute with this, and the Gigatron is the answer. The Gigatron TTL microcomputer is an exercise in alternative history.
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