Building a Computer from Scratch
Many years ago I was taking a digital logic class in college, learning about the primitive circuits that were at the heart of a computer’s operation. The class was clear enough and the subject interesting enough that I really wanted to put what I had learned into action. I envisioned designing and building a computer from those simple circuits into a completed (though slow and simple, by modern standards) computer. I decided to build it using “virtual circuits” inside a computer. It would be a simulated computer. I had two reasons for doing this. 1) I am not an electrical engineer and wanted to focus on the computer’s own internal logic. I did not also want to have to learn engineering on the side, just for what amounted to an (involved) hobby. So this would allow me to concentrate my efforts on how the logic components worked together, not on figuring out power levels and resistors and transistors and so forth. A cheat, I know. 2) Even more importantly, building a compu