My Introduction - Hello from the Editor at DigicoolThings!
Posted: Sun Nov 19, 2023 4:52 am
Hello everyone!
By way of introduction, I’m a long-time computer, microprocessor, digital electronics enthusiast, having started out as a young teenage electronics enthusiast in the late 70’s, then quickly evolving to spending most of my spare time playing with this amazing new digital electronics device called the Microprocessor!
I was amazed at how a typical complex digital electronics logic design, made with many many individual TTL chips, could be replaced with a Microprocessor and a few support chips, and told what to do with some hex machine code, capable of performing perhaps 500,000 operations in a second! Wow!
I eventually made various homebrew systems, the first of which were focussed on the Motorola MC6800 and also my favourite 8-bit CPU of all time, the Motorola MC6809.
Back then, these system designs were built using WireWrap, generally on EuroCard matrix PCB’s with DIN41612 Bus connectors.
Also, these systems were "hand" machine-code programmed (on paper.. no fancy Assemblers back then), and a homebrew EPROM programmer circuit was then required to be built, in order to get your code permanently into your microprocessor design (with a seemingly insane process of debugging… by modern standards).
After building various of my own designs, and others designs, I then moved on to pre-built computers in the early 80’s, like the System 80 (a Z80 based TRS-80 clone), and the Commodore 64 (which was my introduction to 6502 machine code).
Now, after a busy career that has included Electronics, Computers & IT, eCommerce Website Development, Application Software Design and Development, and occasional Microcontroller based Hardware Design, I'm currently focussing more of my time on pursuing my own personally inspired projects! Including, of course, rediscovering my Retro computing and digital electronics beginnings.
I hope you enjoy browsing and (hopefully) also contributing to the Forum community.
By way of introduction, I’m a long-time computer, microprocessor, digital electronics enthusiast, having started out as a young teenage electronics enthusiast in the late 70’s, then quickly evolving to spending most of my spare time playing with this amazing new digital electronics device called the Microprocessor!
I was amazed at how a typical complex digital electronics logic design, made with many many individual TTL chips, could be replaced with a Microprocessor and a few support chips, and told what to do with some hex machine code, capable of performing perhaps 500,000 operations in a second! Wow!
I eventually made various homebrew systems, the first of which were focussed on the Motorola MC6800 and also my favourite 8-bit CPU of all time, the Motorola MC6809.
Back then, these system designs were built using WireWrap, generally on EuroCard matrix PCB’s with DIN41612 Bus connectors.
Also, these systems were "hand" machine-code programmed (on paper.. no fancy Assemblers back then), and a homebrew EPROM programmer circuit was then required to be built, in order to get your code permanently into your microprocessor design (with a seemingly insane process of debugging… by modern standards).
After building various of my own designs, and others designs, I then moved on to pre-built computers in the early 80’s, like the System 80 (a Z80 based TRS-80 clone), and the Commodore 64 (which was my introduction to 6502 machine code).
Now, after a busy career that has included Electronics, Computers & IT, eCommerce Website Development, Application Software Design and Development, and occasional Microcontroller based Hardware Design, I'm currently focussing more of my time on pursuing my own personally inspired projects! Including, of course, rediscovering my Retro computing and digital electronics beginnings.
I hope you enjoy browsing and (hopefully) also contributing to the Forum community.