HS Compute

What you see above is a homemade 8-bit breadboard computer. It has been my brain child since 2016, and is based on Ben Eaters implementation of the SAP (Simple As Possible)
Its goal was simply to give me a platform to get to know software better and at a depth that is impossible to read in a book. I could move bits around, and understand how the computer itself thinks on the lowest of low levels. It's frankly scary how much of this knowledge is transferable to modern day computing, and just how transferable these skills are to industry.
Like most people, I started off my hardware programming with an Arduino Uno. This is a microcontroller that allows anyone to get going with making the lights flash, makes motors spin, and everything inbetween. An incredibly versatile and well put together learning tool. Using this tool, it is really easy to get going with hardware programming, and make super cool projects like an IoT (Internet of Things) kettle, so you can get a uppa on the boil without even leaving your sofa!
This common entry point is labelled in the handy little timeline below

Notice it very much is not at the beginning of the journey of an electron. There has been a great deal of effort put into making the Arduino platform what it is today. Everything from the flag to the kettle is incredibly well documented, matured, and fun!
HS Compute is a project that aims at focussing on everything from the start, at an electrical and logical level, all the way up to the flag. It's all about filling in the blanks, and getting people excited about re-engineering the foundations of the technology that we cannot live without.

Follow along, build along, and learn along, as HS Compute takes shape and becomes a usable, customisable microcontroller that everyone can understand.

How it works

We've taken each important function of a microcontroller, and turned it into its own circuit board.
We then have a way to join all of these boards together on a custom backplane using familiar PCIe style connectors to make a full fledged microcontroller.
It gives you a platform of total freedom to test your theories, see what combinations work best for given scenarios, and truely build your own computer.

Take an example:

  • You need a huge amount of GPIO (General Purpose Input Output), to drive a big electronics project - You have the freedom to add as many IO boards as you need.
  • If you need more memory - add another RAM board
  • Fancy pushing yourself and having 2 processes running - don't play by the rules... add another Program Counter that you can configure in software when each is used!

You are engineering at the very intersection between hardware and software. One will continuously inform the other throughout development of your projects

More advanced boards are being developed to support features such as:

  • PATA/IDE Hard Drive to store multiple programs at once
  • A network card to connect your controller to the Internet
  • Video card for graphics
  • P/S2 interface for keyboards interaction
  • A backplane breakout board, so you can make your very own boards to do exactly what you want.

Technology around the world used to be the wild west. Everyone could build whatever they wanted, and this birthed the level of creativity that layed the foundation of modern life.
From this creativity, several tech giants emerged who shut the door not on "innovation", but the level of freedom that was originally everywhere.
This is a door we are looking to open again, to see what works, and what doesn't.
We don't want to re-invent the wheel, and are taking advantage of the advances in technology and knowledge.
Chips are cheap, reliable, and efficient nowadays, so development can be fast and predictable. This gets you instantly to the level of well funded pioneers, without breaking your bank

We are looking to start the process with the wild west setting once more, and never shut the door on this.
We hope to grow the community to a level where we can hold competitions to decide on the best practises, configurations, and standards for areas of the technology, while maintaining backwards compatability where possible, and making sure everything remains open, always!

Find out more by joining the discord server below!