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Ashet Home Computer

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Re: Ashet Home Computer

#21

Post by ikskuh »

nancyminusone wrote: post #19
ikskuh wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Creator here. Please take a look at the gallery, where there are photos of the actual electronics setups! Also don't the mechanical mockups count as hardware? A pile of jumperwires, breadboards and devices don't make a good hero image, but physical hardware mockups do. Also the electronics design in its current form is actually iteration 5 of the system, while the OS development started with iteration 2. The OS does…

>A pile of jumperwires, breadboards and devices don't make a good hero image I strongly disagree! Hardware people love seeing that sort of thing - the more guts you show, the better. It means you've gotten something to work and probably know what you're talking about. Take pride in what you have accomplished so far! Ideas and concepts are a dime a dozen; working hardware is a worthy milestone.

Note taken!

Will add a new "cleaned up" photo that isn't also entangled with kids stuff, and other desk content :D

Sadly, it really looks atrocious and it's currently a 3D build which is hard to photograph.

Re: Ashet Home Computer

#22

Post by sounds »

ZiiS wrote: post #7
uticus wrote: post #5

> an expandable and hackable computer in the spirit of the 80's home computers cool! > Dual Core CPU hm that will make for some interesting first steps in learning

Tbh having a seperate io core can simplify scheduling.

Agree. Most computers that are a joy to learn have a handful of controllers that operate in parallel. That is, multiple cores

The Apple II had a really cool disk drive because of how it did what it did with so little hardware. By relying on the single CPU for everything it was elegant, advanced, interesting... but perhaps not so easy to program.

https://www.bigmessowires.com/2021/11/12/the-amazing-disk-ii...

Re: Ashet Home Computer

#24

Post by bevr1337 »

> Fully understandable by a single person

Riddle me this, Batman.

What's the scope of "fully understandable?" How much of this home PC could be reasonably audited by individuals or small teams?

I've got no exceptional opsec needs as an individual, but I spend some time wondering the minimum required resources to audit a PC. Looking through the docs I see cases where there are multiple suppliers for a recommended part -- that's very cool!

As a "fake programmer" and web jockey, this looks like the right balance of complexity to learn with.

Re: Ashet Home Computer

#25

Post by ilaksh »

bevr1337 wrote: post #24

> Fully understandable by a single person Riddle me this, Batman. What's the scope of "fully understandable?" How much of this home PC could be reasonably audited by individuals or small teams? I've got no exceptional opsec needs as an individual, but I spend some time wondering the minimum required resources to audit a PC. Looking through the docs I see cases where there are multiple suppliers for a recommended part…

I don't think it's really a fair claim in an educational context. There are at least two completely modern computers (which I assume means fairly complex) including the Raspberry PI and another one he is using the the bus or something.

I just don't think modern CPUs really quite fit the claim of "fully understandable by a single person". I mean maybe technically but that is misleading in an educational context where there are much simpler computers that are definitely fully understandable.

Maybe all of the stuff he wraps around the main CPU is understandable though. And the expansion cards are cool.

Re: Ashet Home Computer

#26

Post by TheAmazingRace »

I love this project! Kudos to the author.

Some day, whenever I have the money to skunkworks this properly, I've wanted to create something like a modern spiritual successor to the Atari ST with enhanced creature comforts.

Something with a CPU based on POWER architecture (like microwatt) with a simplified multicore design (no hyperthreading or weird BIG+little core design - just straightforward homogeneous cores), a simple expansion interface of some kind, and an OS baked into ROM. Then I'd consider it to be built around a long term support model, with one design that can last decades, complete with schematics, chip design reference guide, and an open specification so it can be easily cloned as desired.

Especially now that Moore's Law and Dennard Scaling has slowed down considerably, it could be a fun platform to target for education or the demoscene, instead of spec chasing.

Re: Ashet Home Computer

#27

Post by bevr1337 »

ilaksh wrote: post #25
bevr1337 wrote: post #24

> Fully understandable by a single person Riddle me this, Batman. What's the scope of "fully understandable?" How much of this home PC could be reasonably audited by individuals or small teams? I've got no exceptional opsec needs as an individual, but I spend some time wondering the minimum required resources to audit a PC. Looking through the docs I see cases where there are multiple suppliers for a recommended part…

I don't think it's really a fair claim in an educational context. There are at least two completely modern computers (which I assume means fairly complex) including the Raspberry PI and another one he is using the the bus or something. I just don't think modern CPUs really quite fit the claim of "fully understandable by a single person". I mean maybe technically but that is misleading in an educational context where…

> but that is misleading in an educational context where there are much simpler computers that are definitely fully understandable.

Are there any other projects or resources in this space that you'd recommend?

A friend and I cut our teeth on those AlphaSmart word processors that ran BASIC. I might could wrap my head around that.

Re: Ashet Home Computer

#28

Post by vermilingua »

bevr1337 wrote: post #27
ilaksh wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it's really a fair claim in an educational context. There are at least two completely modern computers (which I assume means fairly complex) including the Raspberry PI and another one he is using the the bus or something. I just don't think modern CPUs really quite fit the claim of "fully understandable by a single person". I mean maybe technically but that is misleading in an educational context where…

> but that is misleading in an educational context where there are much simpler computers that are definitely fully understandable. Are there any other projects or resources in this space that you'd recommend? A friend and I cut our teeth on those AlphaSmart word processors that ran BASIC. I might could wrap my head around that.

Ben Eater’s 6502 series (and whole channel) is the gold standard (imo) for understanding how a computer works in every detail.

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLowKtXNTBypFbtuVMUVXNR0z1...

Re: Ashet Home Computer

#29

Post by eikenberry »

Their OS is written in Zig!

    https://github.com/Ashet-Technologies/Ashet-OS
Thought it might be of interest to people learning Zig. I bet there are some interesting examples in there.

Re: Ashet Home Computer

#30

Post by duskwuff »

lysace wrote: post #20
uticus wrote: post #5

> an expandable and hackable computer in the spirit of the 80's home computers cool! > Dual Core CPU hm that will make for some interesting first steps in learning

The Parallax P8X32A Propeller (2006) did multi-core processing in a very beginner friendly way. It can be done - if you take a holistic approach to hardware + runtime + development environment. The Propeller probably failed because of the custom language, the custom assembly syntax, the custom ISA, the custom IDE font (!) etc. It was a very neat system though.

The Propeller was a commercial failure because it was a one-off part, from a small company, with very little software ecosystem surrounding it, a poor performance to price ratio, and no migration path if you needed more capabilities than it could provide.
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