I write about the past, present, and future of technology across three sites. imapenguin.com explores retro computing and programming fundamentals, milkcrunch.com covers modern software development and engineering culture, and evadot.com examines commercial spaceflight and the new space movement.
Posts
- Put @adumont’s custom bios and 6502 Forth implementation on my CERBERUS 2080. I guess I’ll have to actually learn Forth now :) Happy Friday!
- Happened to open Hacker News this morning and noticed someone submitted my article and I’m number 3 this morning. Since this internet is only for complaining these days, I think I will NOT read the comments.
- Had this DIP-40 to IDC socket cable custom made and it looks fantastic. At least one part of the project will be neat and tidy #commodore #vicsrevenge
- How fast can a 6502 transfer memory · imapenguin
- Broke out the Cerberus 2080 this morning to test out an idea on a 6502 at a fast clock speed. 8Mhz should do.
- Ended up springing for the most up to date version of this book because… RISC-V. Lots and lots to study in here. #fpga #riscv
- Another piece of unobtainium has been obtained. #fpga
- This is just the summer book pile that’s on my nightstand. There’s another this high on my office desk. Good thing I’m a fast reader :)
- Atari VCS/2600 composite video mod is pretty straightforward. What better game to smoke test with than Yars’ Revenge :) #atari
- Before work this morning I got an okayish mod to the “worlds worst paper tape reader” working. Now can somewhat reliably read the sprocket holes and use them as a timing signal. Super happy at this point and I may call this “complete”. #kim1 #commodore
- Same price for 1-25.125 Mhz clock as 16 of them. So now I have 15 spares...
- Guy up the road from me called and said he found this unopened laptop in storage and do I want it? I literally just pulled the plastic off of an Everex 386. The screen contrast/over brightness needs work and the hard drive is toast. 40 pin DIP EEPROM is kinda neat.
- Rereading this book today. Seems important at the moment for so many reasons.
- I was feeling like living dangerously today so I broke out Schrodinger’s cat of computers. The cat is alive today ;-) #commodore #plus4
- Broke out the PC-4 to use for my day job today. Post by @HeyBirt reminded me how great it is :)
- Look who has developed a RAM fault. My least favorite machine in my collection.
- Okay, so I got off on a bunny-trail working out how to get Jim Butterfield's Lunar Lander for the KIM-1 printed on paper tape. Back off man, I'm a scientist! #commodore #kim1
- Waiting on some parts for the VIC chip replacement project so that’s on hold now this week. Might build this Super Snapshot replica board this evening. #commodore
- I know you were just sitting there wondering if a VIC-20 will boot off of an external 3.3v clock signal. The answer is surprisingly: yes. Scope here shows activity on all of the RAM from the CPU. Neato! #commodore
- This VIC-20 got HOT. Swapped the linear regulator with a modern switching ($9). Before: 46C drawing 2.3 amps. After: 26C drawing 1.03 amps. Much better. #commodore