Simple CPU
simplecpu.com
Simple CPU
1–10 of 65 posts
Re: Simple CPU
#2Anyone who cares about this topic is welcome to contribute to https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Programmable_Logic/Verilog_for...
I started it at the request of some HN users, and I hope it continues to hopefully enlighten some software folks who wonder how the CPU they rely on actually works.
Re: Simple CPU
#3The gates with the simple toggle functions are really good and simple to use. It reminds me of playing around with redstone in minecraft.
Knowing most if not all of this already I cannot say how well it teaches, but it does describe what I spent much longer on learning.
Re: Simple CPU
#4I'm in my 4th year of University and this just explained the concepts in the best way I've ever seen, far better than any of my lecturers. Thank you.
Re: Simple CPU
#5Here Feynman explains the basic logic behind building of all of the computers. He is inspiring even if you know more details about the topics he talks about, because he stimulates you to a fresh view. The youtube title is, IMHO, misleading. The lecture is about the basic hardware concepts and not about heuristics, so I think it fits perfectly with the OP.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKWGGDXe5MA
Edit: At the start the original title is visible it's "Richard Feynman: The Computers From the Inside Out" and the lecture is from 1985.
The major quote:
"Computers are not primarily computing machines, they are actually filing systems."
Re: Simple CPU
#6The memory scrolling doesn't work in FF - you can only see the initial 6 locations... And he's fixed that. Awesome!
Also - it would be very neat to have a "reset" on the Instruction Pointer, so that you don't have to refresh the current page if you want to start your program over...
Re: Simple CPU
#7Here Feynman explains the basic logic behind building of all of the computers. He is inspiring even if you know more details about the topics he talks about, because he stimulates you to a fresh view. The youtube title is, IMHO, misleading. The lecture is about the basic hardware concepts and not about heuristics, so I think it fits perfectly with the OP. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKWGGDXe5MA Edit: At the start…
Listening to Feynman talking about computers on a sunday evening. Life is good.
Re: Simple CPU
#8At 1st year of CS they taught us to design and understand the simple machine, a simple computer with just a CPU and a control unit. They also taught us how MIPS architechture worked (quite simplified). I still remember the struggle to rotate a matrix in mips.
Re: Simple CPU
#9I really like this presentation and content. It's accurate, interactive, and brief. Feynman, I think, would be pleased. What these few pages describe are precisely the "atoms" that underly computation, which is truly counter-intuitive, remarkable, and (these days) ubiquitous. (Which describes a lot of things! Black body radiation is my current favorite).
Two suggestions to the author: first, identify yourself on the site! Second, interpret "0" as "STOP" or "RESET" to prevent the simulation from running to infinity. Alternatively, adjust the UI to indicate that the PC is off-screen.
Re: Simple CPU
#10This is awesome.
"You can scroll through memory as well" --> Would be nice to have a scroll-bar because I missed this at first and wondered why there were only 6 bytes of memory. (Would also be nice to see a bit more of the memory at once, although then the instructions might be easy to miss. Maybe a "show more memory" check-box?)
Would also definitely be nice to reset / modify the instruction pointer.
And of course the ability to save/load the CPU state (eg. simple copy/paste to the clipboard.)
Next steps would be to teach about basic I/O, since that's a fundamental part of any computer. (Start with some simulated LEDs/toggle switches that map directly to a special address space?)