Designing a processor is a common topic during a computer science education. But unless you specialize in computer architecture, you rarely end up building the actual hardware. Even if you do build it, most classes tend to use FPGAs or at least some ready-made hardware parts.

Just for fun, I’ve decided to build my own processor just from basic components.

The idea

This is not intended as a “Computer Architecture 101” or a DIY guide to make your own CPU. It is simply a loose build log detailing my successes and failures while trying to create something that works. A lot of the design choices probably won’t be influenced by logic as much as by the desire to try out something “neat”.

My general goal is to build a small processor capable of executing some basic programs like Conways Game of Life. To make everything a bit more interesting, I will try to limit myself to the most basic components: Transistors, resistors, capacitors and diodes.

The progress so far

• With a fistful of transistors – Building a CPU from scratch (The Plan)
• With a fistful of transistors 1 – Back to the basics (simple transistor logic)

Upcoming articles:

• With a fistful of transistors 2 – Getting abstract (logic symbols for each transistor combination)
• With a fistful of transistors 3 – From eagle to python (parsing EAGLE files with a python script)