Projects

Hardware

• IBM 5160 and 3270 PC bring-up hardware active

  Two Tektronix-surplus IBM XTs, a 5160 and a 5271, brought from untested to booting DOS 5 off their ST-251s.

  12 logs, last 2026-10-27
• DINO hardware active

  8-bit CPU from discrete 74-series logic on breadboards. 174-instruction microcoded ISA with add-with-carry, stack, CALL/RET and interrupts; executes from RAM, has a serial card and a ROM monitor, and runs SCELBAL BASIC.

  23 logs, last 2026-10-06
• Tandy CoCo 3 hardware active

  Three Tandy Color Computer 3s, one with a Hitachi 6309, running NitrOS-9 off a CoCo SDC through a Multi-Pak, with a Speech/Sound Cartridge that talks only at slow speed.

  2 logs, last 2026-09-26
• UniDisk 3.5 controller hardware active

  A replacement controller board for the Apple UniDisk 3.5 (A2M2053): an RP2350 that talks SmartPort to the Apple IIe and drives the stock Sony 800K mechanism directly, skipping the undocumented Sony gate array.

  17 logs, last 2026-10-25
• LiteX 8008 Node hardware done

  The b8008 core inside a LiteX SoC on the ECP5-5G Versa, with its monitor console carried over UDP. make login from anywhere on the LAN lands you at the 8008 monitor prompt.

  5 logs, last 2026-09-10
• Intel 8008 VHDL hardware done

  Intel 8008 in VHDL, one module per box on Intel’s 1972 block diagram. Cycle-exact, runs on a Lattice ECP5-5G Versa, boots into SCELBI BASIC. Every module has a machine-checked proof or sweep in CI.

  10 logs, last 2026-09-03
• Byte Hamr hardware done

  Open-source ECP5-85F FPGA card for the Apple IIe: 64 MB SDRAM, SPI flash, USB and JTAG, 20-pin GPIO. Rev 2 runs a ProDOS block device, a Liron SmartPort controller, a soft 6502 coprocessor, and an Intel 8008 coprocessor with its own toolchain on the Apple.

  14 logs, last 2026-09-14
• IBM PCjr hardware planning

  A $5 garage sale IBM PCjr, bare unit, being sized up for what it takes to get power, a keyboard and a monitor on it.

  no logs yet

Software

• SigScope software active

  SigScope: a native Mac front panel for the Siglent SDS1204X-E over USB, written in C++ and Qt 6. Knobs and lit buttons like the scope’s own panel, live traces, persistence, cursors and measurements.

  3 logs, last 2026-09-10
• Apple IIe software active

  A 128K Apple IIe with A2DVI video and ADTPro over serial, used mostly as a place to write 6502 in Merlin and try old toolchains on the real machine.

  1 log, last 2026-09-11
• Vim 5.8 for the IBM XT software active

  Vim 5.8’s 16-bit DOS build revived with Open Watcom 2 for an 8088 at 4.77 MHz and 640K, with :make and swap-to-disk for :!.

  1 log, last 2026-10-09