0101 – Helpful Must-have Devices

I'm sort of in a housing limbo, living in an extended stay hotel near my new job. My family is still at the old location as they make the necessary preparations to join me here. Not having them with me, I've had some time to kill to fill up my nights and weekends when I'm…

0100 – ROM, Building an EEPROM Programmer and a Break

As I'm slowly mulling over each component of my system, trying to learn how each piece works - first by itself, then within the system as a whole - I keep stopping at various design decision crossroads. One such decision is, "which ROM should I go with?" The Apple part #341-0031 boot ROM that came with my…

0011 – Fabricating your own tools

One of the byproducts of building your own electronics, especially with a  project like a microcomputer, are the tools you'll eventually need to assist with testing and development. As a beginning hobbyist, I don't have a lab of oscilloscopes, variable power supplies, frequency generators and the like. These things would certainly help. But my goals are to…

0010 – Free Run and Memory Mapping

  I'd mentioned last time that Free Run is comparable to the traditional "Hello World" of software when building one's own computer. Free run is basically hardwiring the CPU to perform the same operation - in this case the 6502 op-code NOP - over and over. But at least it gives you the opportunity to…

0001 – The Beginning

Let me start by reminding you I am not an electrical engineer by trade nor formal education. I have a software development background, which is also entirely self-taught. So these pages are a diary of my experiences and thoughts as I acquire the requisite knowledge to build an 8-bit computer. I will try to share as much…

The Homebrew Apple ///

Hi there. This blog is about my efforts to build my own Apple /// computer from as many existing parts as I have. I cannot guarantee success with this project, regular updates nor even a conclusion. However, I will do as much as I can to document whatever progress I make toward a finished product so that…