Resurrecting the 8088 Micoprocessor
1–10 of 24 posts
Re: Resurrecting the 8088 Micoprocessor
#2I guess he's aiming for something like this:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Breadboard_complex.jp...
The 8088/8086 were probably the first - and last - "breadboardable" x86 CPUs as everything after that came in square, non-DIP packages. However, there have been hobbyists making their own electronics for x86-based computers up to the 486: http://dubel.org/computer/
Starting with the Pentium, however, things got really hairy...
Re: Resurrecting the 8088 Micoprocessor
#3Where can one still buy an 8088? Are they still being produced?
Re: Resurrecting the 8088 Micoprocessor
#4I guess he's aiming for something like this: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Breadboard_complex.jp... The 8088/8086 were probably the first - and last - "breadboardable" x86 CPUs as everything after that came in square, non-DIP packages. However, there have been hobbyists making their own electronics for x86-based computers up to the 486: http://dubel.org/computer/ Starting with the Pentium, however, things go…
FWIW...The 80286 came in a 40-pin DIP, and of course lots of non-x86 processors came (still come) in DIP as well.
From a hobbyist perspective, PGA packages aren't really alot more difficult to deal with than DIP. Even LCC & PLCC packages have easy through-hole sockets.
QFP & PGA are, of course, nightmares. :-)
The real problem is it becomes increasingly difficult to breadboard a machine as processor clock goes above 10-20MHz. I've actually been puzzling how slow a PCI bus can run, since prototyping something at 33MHz is really hard.
Re: Resurrecting the 8088 Micoprocessor
#5Where can one still buy an 8088? Are they still being produced?
I think you can still find them from electronics dealers; Jameco still has them listed in their online catalog, for example: http://www.jameco.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product_1000...
Re: Resurrecting the 8088 Micoprocessor
#6I guess he's aiming for something like this: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Breadboard_complex.jp... The 8088/8086 were probably the first - and last - "breadboardable" x86 CPUs as everything after that came in square, non-DIP packages. However, there have been hobbyists making their own electronics for x86-based computers up to the 486: http://dubel.org/computer/ Starting with the Pentium, however, things go…
FWIW...The 80286 came in a 40-pin DIP, and of course lots of non-x86 processors came (still come) in DIP as well. From a hobbyist perspective, PGA packages aren't really alot more difficult to deal with than DIP. Even LCC & PLCC packages have easy through-hole sockets. QFP & PGA are, of course, nightmares. :-) The real problem is it becomes increasingly difficult to breadboard a machine as processor clock goes above…
32-bit ARM Cortex-M0+ CPUs are available in DIPs:
28-pin: http://www.nxp.com/products/microcontrollers/cortex_m0_m0/lp...
4-pin!: http://www.nxp.com/products/microcontrollers/cortex_m0_m0/lp...
Re: Resurrecting the 8088 Micoprocessor
#7Where can one still buy an 8088? Are they still being produced?
I don't know of anyone fabbing a monolithic 8088 these days, but you can license a feature complete 8088 core for use on an ASIC or FPGA from lots of firms. There's still a market.
Re: Resurrecting the 8088 Micoprocessor
#8Where can one still buy an 8088? Are they still being produced?
I got one from ebay, along with an 8086 and z-80.
Re: Resurrecting the 8088 Micoprocessor
#9The other news in this article: Jameco is still in business?! Wow.
They used to supply geeks throughout the US with their mail order biz; For me, it was late 70s/early 80s.
Re: Resurrecting the 8088 Micoprocessor
#10Have to mention Code by Charles Petzold which was recommended somewhere around here. It builds up from basic logic gates (with loads of diagrams) to a rough approximation of the 8080 series processors. A great book if you want to know the principles and history of this technology.