One project I have been interested in for a while is building a homebrew computer. Some of the projects I have followed like Veronica are really fascinating and I would like to do something similar. For my project I decided to use an M68000 but Mouser did not have any in DIP packages when I ordered from them last year so I settled on a W65C816S instead. This chip is compatible with the 6502 like Veronica uses but also has a 16-bit mode which is more powerful. Other homebrew computers like this one use that chip as well.
Setting up RAM and ROM to work with the processor for a simple system is well-documented. My first idea was to hook up a microcontroller to the system once I had it running to monitor the bus and some of the control pins not usually used in simple systems. That way I could transfer information about the system to a PC over UART and even control the clock rate. Then I realized that it would be simpler to skip the RAM and ROM altogether and keep all of the memory on the PC. The microcontroller would relay data between the processor and the emulated memory and peripherals. This would not be a useful system by itself but it would let me learn a lot about how the processor works.
Simple systems like the KIM-1 were produced in the past along the same lines. These were called trainers and often had simple hardware that let people learn about how computers work. I decided to call my project a trainer also. My plan is to control the processor through an interface on the PC that will let me examine the memory as the program is running as well as set break points and single-step the processor. It will also show me the status of all the control pins and let me set the values of some of them. Peripherals like buttons, lights, and displays will all be virtual. Here are some of the ones I have working so far:
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| KIM-1 6502 trainer |
Simple systems like the KIM-1 were produced in the past along the same lines. These were called trainers and often had simple hardware that let people learn about how computers work. I decided to call my project a trainer also. My plan is to control the processor through an interface on the PC that will let me examine the memory as the program is running as well as set break points and single-step the processor. It will also show me the status of all the control pins and let me set the values of some of them. Peripherals like buttons, lights, and displays will all be virtual. Here are some of the ones I have working so far:
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