From Transistors To Tetris Part 1 : Computer Architecture

[@jefftruck]

Lev - at the expense of being long winded - here it goes. I found this video today. My face quickly grew a smile. I'm quite old by today's IT standards. Started out building a small micro computer in the 70's as a teenager. Grew up professionally in the mainframe space. Eventually made my way into client server and other related fields of IT. You might say full circle on many fronts. I have often feared that today's younger generation is missing out in understanding the low level world of computers. I myself have dealt with IT professionals today that do not even know what a CPU register is - yet they 'program'. I bought Ben Eater's kit in 2019, built it, brought out the old computer from the 70's got that running and I'm back in the game again with low level computing. Can't get enough of it. This brings me to your video and work. I can't express how happy I am to see that a young person (by my standard of age) is interested in this level of computing. I know from Ben Eater's Reddit that a lot of people are working on it, but I never really understood what the demographic spread of age was involved. I think it it AWESOME to see you getting into this low level stuff. If you don't already know, as a seasoned IT professional, this will open huge doors for you. Thank you so much and I look forward to watching your progress!

[@yigita.3824]

This comment somehow made me nostalgic for a time and place I am far far away.

[@ThatGuyDownInThe]

that's why I'm here. I'm a programmer and so many I work with are comfortable just doing that, I need to go to the deepest level, I have to understand this stuff from A-Z, makes the job a lot easier too lol.

[@davidcarlsson1396]

I am 25 and really want to find time for these stuffs. My grandfather collected mechanical calculators, and I really want to know more about the early days of transistor and computer technology. Will probably buy a Ben Eaters kit, seems funnier and more productive than lego. I was the last class at uni to get tought these lowlevel stuff, the supervisor knew nothing and everything was stressed, really want to emerge and take my time to understand... Also to be able to teach my nephews and niece. And possibly other kids that want to listen to me when I turn 40 and speak about "the old days" that actually was 30 years before my birth XD

[@theepicgamer275]

no

[@Combinehuntsmanunit]

I want to do this stuff, I’m planning on making my own working computer soon but gathering the parts to build one of these is quite daunting.

[@fun3306603]

As someone who love Ben's videos. This is awesome!

[@francoisdastardly4405]

Absolutely awesome !!!

[@stickworldanimated9545]

This is so cool love this hope he keeps this series up!!!! I would love to see this thing run some large programs!

[@skilz8098]

me 0010

[@Randomdude-i8x]

Very impressive that you learned this on your self. I got to learn these basics in my CS bachelor. Was fun and tedious and frustrating. But magical too. No simple feat to understand it, but even more impressive that you learned it yourself.

[@hgbugalou]

I fall somewhere between the computing OGs and the iphone zoomers. I grew up with dial up modems and AOL. In any case, I love to see young people getting in the trenches with this low level close to the hardware level of development. It's knowledge that needs to be retained. You will be changing the world by the time you are my age!

[@swirlingabyss]

Ben Eater's series is great! After years of trying to learn computer architechture, it finally clicked when I watched Ben's series.

[@skilz8098]

It's a bit dated but it's still great source material and the ideas and concepts are still quite relevant... There's a university channel that gets into ISA design - CPU Architecture and System Management... I think the later courses extend on this and even get into Operating System Design. I believe the University I seen before is called Bilkent Online Courses. Now they have a lot of courses for many different topics in software engineering, but there is some hardware engineering related material. I think the courses I watched was from around 2008 - 2012 era... It's really good source material. And the one professor explains things quite well.

[@isbeb507]

i laughed at "when i go to college" bud this was more ambitious than half the projects i did in college

[@lauprellim]

What a fantastic and inspiring video. I have a ph.d. In an unrelated field and am a tenured professor, yet you make it all so elegant! Really enjoyed video 2 as well. Congratulations and keep it up!!

[@adilsongoliveira]

When I was an intern, working at a steel foundry, the computer that ran one of the furnaces was almost all based on discreet NOR gates. I made hundreds of those boards to keep as spare parts.

[@stachowi]

any computer can be built with ONLY NOR gates OR NAND gates... pretty amazing. There is a book called "NAND to Tetris"

[@ophello]

*discrete

[@doctorbobstone]

@@ophello You never know. Maybe his NOR gates are good at keeping secrets. As they say, "Loose bits sink ships."

[@Meowmix8088]

I built a 1 bit adder using discrete npn bjts. It took an entire weekend and was very hard for me. I am much older than you are also. This is all to say…. What you have done is just simply extraordinary.

[@artahir123]

how can i make a 1 bit adder whats the path you followed ?

[@PaymaanJafari]

This is great engineering. I started on C64 and 6510 assembly, and you designing all that ftom scratch means you have studied and learned all the fundamentals of it. It's a pitty you stopped making more videos on similar topics.

[@ophello]

*pity

[@ralphlouis2705]

You get the best intellectual men who never went to formal education yet they made the best

[@sadboinlh1586]

Hey lev you are a great teacher! This is the most coherent educational video I’ve seen since I can’t even remember. You make every word count. Subscribed 👍

[@tocodelray]

Fantastic video. I am new to computer science and this type of project is very inspirational and exciting! I am looking forward to part 2!

[@cheeseman1153]

I don't understand a single word he is saying but this is still on of the most entertaining youtube videos I've seen

[@ophello]

Dude watch Ben Eater’s videos on building a breadboard computer. It’s so straight forward that even a noob can understand.

[@BalticLab]

"I have no formal education in electrical engineering." -> Awesome, that - by my experience - correlates with good content. After watching the video, I would say that hypothesis proved itself to be true in your case as well. Good job!

[@legendaryreaper2276]

This is the best Video I have ever seen mentioning how computers work ❤❤

[@AndrewErwin73]

Very nice work. I am late to the party. I have been programming professionally since 1999. I am of that generation that had to know a little bit about how computers worked to write programs for them. And I have always tried to instill that into developers that I teach. It is pretty impressive that you would take that on yourself.

[@parihar786]

Wow! These guys have so much time. It was entertaining to listen to this dude. First few minutes ;)

[@gigachad2419]

Aah Yes I Love These Videos..... Ben Eater and Yours Channel is what I look forward to Keep going with your content!!

[@JSE52010]

Looking forward to watching this develop

[@jitenanand4899]

understanding the hardware is interesting but more interesting is how the different manufactures came togather to decide on specification standards. The evolution of architechtures, standards, specifications, apis is really interesting to know as those human decisions are key to understand how modern complex systems flawlessly works with themselves.

[@shawnmuench]

I think about that too, but more in terms of competition fallout. Surely over the decades some people got burned and left out of the industry as their standard was suddenly made obsolete. I can't even guess the politics and plays that the big companies made to ensure their survival.

[@AsusMemopad-us5lk]

Came together to set standards? As I recall they just all write their own standards, and whoever wins the most market share gets to tax everyone else for the IP, or at least tax everyone who wants to sell anything compatible. It’s the American way.

[@iDontProgramInCpp]

16:00 the code does work if you put `index` in RAM, `index` is just a regular variable

[@3DSage]

really amazing project! :)

[@axelanderson2030]

no joke, I've thought about Tetris on transistors before. Awesome video, thanks

[@colin351]

Excellent video/series, man. Very well explained and technical (in a good way)

[@donwald3436]

Young man, you are going to go far in life. Keep it up.

[@jsmythib]

I was also infected by the Ben Eater series :) If i was to do it again I would like to try and feed my architecture into chat gpt. I think it could really speed up dev in a few areas. Your full transistor design is impressive. Fun stuff. You, like Ben are building a floor for people to stand on. Thankyou.

[@richardsidler]

We done, and we’ll written. Looks forward to further episodes. Best success!

[@ARBB1]

What fantastic work! I've dreamed of doing this, but never have done so. Great work.

[@randomcuber230]

same

[@SebleBeyene-jp8hp]

Is it like Mans dream I'm 17 but i just want to build computer. I just start curious about computer since i was 12!

[@yezariaelll]

Great stuff. Just saw your post at reddit. Hopefully this channel will get the attention it deserves soon! :)

[@spiderjuice9874]

I like your ideas. Your commands are very reminiscent of the 6502, but that's an awesome chip so my comment is not a criticism. I was planning to build a *really* basic computer after watching Ben Eater's breadboard computer videos, mine would have a total memory of 256 bytes, with an ability to modify to stack size against free memory to give maximum convenience, depending on the program being designed. It is only a demonstration computer. When I get around to it. (Just need a decent lockdown to give me some time.)

[@beentrill24]

I'll say this much, as a student going to one of the top universities in the country as an Electrical Engineering student, especially learning as much in theory and concept about these components such as transistors or microprocessors I've learned just as much if not more in the first 45 seconds of this video than you could learn at a top tier university. Sad but true.

[@beentrill24]

Please by all means, learn as much as you can from the internet before wasting your money on a degree unless you absolutely need it. It's all a scam. please.

[@ropersonline]

16:15 and 16:50: A memory map so nice, you announced it twice! :)

[@MrMaxeemum]

I understand electronics and programing (including basic assembly) but in between those I find incredibly hard to understand (same like chemistry, it's just black magic), I have a lot of admiration for those who do. It all goes to show we all have a place in this world and that we are not all equal and the differences are what make the world go round. I am quite happy to not know how the screen is drawn while I type an Email to my friend about a funny cat video I saw the internet. Respect those who have gone before but realise they didn't know everything and there may be a better way of doing things. So long as we all move forward together we can't fail. Sorry for the rant, I have been drinking tonight.

[@pawanchawla3205]

Thanks for the motivation. I wasn't sure if I could do it, but I might try it eventually.

[@tanjaweber-flohr6106]

Bro was staring in my soul at the beginning 🥶 ( great video )

[@presidentashleyadamaricruz9374]

THIS IS SO WELL DONE

[@markb7084]

Very interesting (simple and effective) architecture. Have to implement it on my simulator.

[@Vancha112]

Time to dive in, planning to build something much simpler than this, but this is all really interesting stuff!

[@raymondhintz5457]

You can speed up the turn off time of a transistor by discharging the the capacitance in the base to collector junction by using a germanium diode.

[@aas_shortforsmthin]

0this my first time in this channel. 0:26 sec in and im ALL IN HERE

[@arduinomaquinas]

Nice, like full 😉👍👏👏👏

[@yohannestz9893]

this is so awesome after watching ben's videos

[@josephjensen8436]

Simply impressive! 👍

[@empatikokumalar8202]

Hi Lev; Which country are you a citizen of and what is your education on the subject?

[@theorphanobliterator]

I feel like 4 registers isn't enough. Especially because they are special purpose registers. Less memory accesses are needed in a CPU with more registers. In the few cpus I've built, I usually use 8 general purpose registers, convinced with the numerous special purpose registers. In programs like Tetris, this allows the cpu to not access memory as much; more data can be stored with the alu. One register for current falling brick x position, another for y position. The next for the current block type, and the fourth register for the next block type. things like these allow you to do constant operations on these operands very quickly without having to access memory (takes multiple cycles)

[@DigitalViscosity]

The design is reminiscent of the 6502, it has zero page addressing which is just as fast as 256 registers.

[@theorphanobliterator]

@@DigitalViscosity i still prefer the load/store architecture like that of the mips instruction set

[@VikiLab]

This great !! my question is how did you learn all this ?

[@rkmag1141]

The references he said at the beginning are enough for those who are really interested in basic computer architecture

[@millamulisha]

Certified awesome. 😎

[@seekervinod]

Ben Eater Jr. 🤩❤️🔥

[@TheUtuber999]

2:37 I like the clever idea of reducing the number of required registers to keep the transistor count to a minimum, even if it means needing to tweak the code a bit to accommodate. I'm wondering if you might still be able to drive those 2N7002s at something like 1 - 10 mA because 200 mA seems ridiculously high. Have you tried that already?

[@ArneChristianRosenfeldt]

There seems to be a rather hard lower limit for the number of registers to still be able to implement 8086 microcode. We need PC. We need a stack to push away context. For MUL and REP we need CX to count. We need AX, DX for the values. For MOVS we need two addresses, let’s store them in BX and DX. On 6502 CX would be X. Y and Z would be the addresses is MOVS . DX would be B.

[@AliBaba-vw7mo]

Hey there Lev, what subject are you going to pursue in college?

[@tomhankstomhanks2579]

Very good brother i like your channel

[@ehrenmurdick]

Are the 16bit instructions just literal control words? If so, do you break them up into more than one step in the instruction decoder logic?

[@abdullahyousef3596]

Are there good KZbin videos/Playlists I could study from to able to build similar stuff, also what are the topics I need to study to build similar things.

[@antonnym214]

Very nice work! I have been thinking of a design for a 12-bit Addr / Data computer. It was hard, but I was able to decide on a 16-instruction set. That's 4-bits for the opcode, and 8 bits for data all in the instruction. Originally, the plan was using relays, but I may end up going with transistors like you. This is very interesting stuff! All good wishes.

[@deang5622]

Why not do it in an FPGA and use a hardware description language?

[@williamsteele]

So, when you're performing the JSR, are you pushing both the high and low bytes (8 bits) to the stack to get a full return address, or are you shortcutting it to within 256 bytes of the subroutine and just applying an offset?

[@FF177-]

the stack is 16 bits wide, only the stack counter is 8 bits

[@firashaidar1544]

What transistors did you use?

[@TF-km2ls]

I think I never subscribed that fast to a channel

[@rajkiran3989]

Hell ya...i am gonna subscribe.

[@sammelamed7311]

Lev, great video!!

[@LoyalTreeFriend]

very impressive

[@thatoyaonebogopa9483]

Do you have a part list so we can buy and follow along.

[@ahmedsajeed1240]

brother , it would be great if you do a video on how you have started out in thus HOW THE COMPUTER WORKS and BUILDING ONE ON MY OWN journey , what books you've read , whom you've watched , how long it took , your advice for novice people like me and also what mistakes not to make . please say what u think , I'm waiting for your response...

[@RixtronixLAB]

Cool video, thanks :)

[@devdylan6152]

really great project and the video is really well delivered! congrats.

[@JuanesChiwirosky]

Awesome project!

[@Theblaziken2000]

I definitely hope I can do something similar to this before I graduate. Having university resources will most definitely make such a process easier. It's more of the programming that I would struggle with because I'm not the most familiar with that stuff atm. Plus there's no gdb or valgrind when you're building your own cpu.

[@kevinz1991]

phenomenal. thank you

[@thecorruptedbit5585]

Have you checked out Usagi Electric's Vacuum Tube Computer project? It might be interesting to compare to your own goal (though the technologies are a bit different)

[@aewens]

Seems similar to the “IntCode” implementation from the 2019 Advent of Code problems

[@ropersonline]

2:41: I don't think something a little over a kilowatt of power is technically _unfeasible._ Electric kettles routinely exceed that. Even in the U.S., anything up to 1.7kW should be okay. Admittedly, it still might not be _preferable,_ and might make your air con and electricity bill scream for mercy.

[@mythofheroes1675]

Hi! What books did you use to learn all that? Me want.

[@saydron]

Thanks Lev

[@rahulshekhar8498]

Thanks for tutorial

[@technikfreaksmj5321]

which transistors are good for building a computer

[@deang5622]

FETs. You can use bipolars but they will consume more power and you will need more of them.

[@mathwithgui8303]

next video creating a two cpu motherboard homemade, do you think its possible?

[@markrussell5587]

I think you could have talked a bit slower, I feel that as someone who's here for the pleasure of it, your presentation was about twice the speed it needed to be lol. For me, the length of the video doesn't matter a long as the contents good, and if the contents good I'll keeping watching whatever the length. Keep up the good work!

[@levkruglyak]

Thanks! I'll try to speak at a more reasonable pace next video.

[@liviupatty]

Yes, please do. Can’t wait for second part. Thanks

[@cosmosaodyssey2188]

@@levkruglyak you have to decide whether or not you're an educational channel or just wanting to show your work to others who might already understand most of it

[@wafikiri_]

​@@levkruglyak As someone whose first language is not English, I can tell you this was fast talk indeed. I'm used enough to understand all that you said, but most of English-foreigner viewers will not. Even native English-speakers would also need some seconds to let technical concepts sink in before the next one is up. That all would slow down your videos, but that's the kind of patience you'll have to allow yourself in order to get more viewers.

[@evenaicantfigurethisout]

hello, are you going to continue this series?

[@matthewsidaway1437]

excellent video

[@lordrahulcool]

How are those yellow relay? Are they reliable?

[@chrisskyr623]

Awesome

[@ianwalsh3868]

I was actually thinking about transistor style login in Minecraft TODAY! I love Ben Eater’s videos, would you be interested in doing a video on your Minecraft version/sharing the world? That would be an excellent starting point, having seen Ben’s videos

[@crystalsheep1434]

Pretty cool

[@robertogudino1919]

Congratulations! I am also working on a homemade 32 bit computer.

[@JKTCGMV13]

“When I go to college” this is an insane project for a high schooler

[@DigitalViscosity]

Nowadays it is, back in the 80s and 90s the computer "nerds" did stuff like this but with less access to information unfortunately. They got it nice nowadays.

[@captainvaughn5692]

@@DigitalViscosity wait a few years and you'll see how "nice" the following generation will have it.

[@astrixff]

Amazing!

[@ahmedabdelmonem2409]

Drag the volu for the setuper track that you're recording into all the way down.

[@adammontgomery7980]

I know it seems kind of anachronistic to study retro-computing as a young person, but I don't know how else you can learn about how computers actually work. I don't think it's possible to study a modern processor in depth like you can with a 6502 or similar.

[@nariharicreations]

I found out why soft softs so different compared to Ableton. It is because there is a default limiter on the master that i didn't know about.

[@vanshjam3015]

Thank you! Here's a request from ! Can you please make a tutorial on how to record your actual tutorial and input your own soft

[@Frisky0563]

Do you have a logic analyzer say 64 channels ? I would be awesome to watch this in action. The fetching of opcodes and associate data. The result of an addiction instruction and so many things. I work with microcontrollers which is very similar in nature. I lately have been research a older Zilog Z8 series mpu which came out shortly after I graduated from Devry. I'm using a Z8613RS and a Z8681 in expanded mode. It's a lot of fun. I think that's awesome building a computer from discrete transistor. I just want to say Hi and wish you well.

[@BarnardClangdeggin]

Let me know if you want a job at a great software development company!

[@Slamy4096]

15:48 Something bothers me here. You said that this is self modifying code. But this is not the case as the memory address of index could be at any position in RAM. It would be self modifying code if the address is an address encoded in the opcode which was altered at runtime. But this code here could still be executed from ROM.

[@bartpelle3460]

You're right, but not for the reason you stated. It indeed isn't self-modifying code; it would be self-modifying code if he patched the immediate in the previous example (say, the operand to `lda base, #00` where #00 is the immediate) but this is not the case; and in fact, the example shows simply how we work with memory (and 'fields') in assembly: modifying memory locations. Also, don't forget: running code from ROM is not possible in about all CPUs, because there (generally) is no such thing to a CPU as "ram versus rom" -- it's whatever you glue to the address lines and data lines, and that's one big blob of data to the CPU. So yes, the code he shows _IS_ ran from memory, that is, from CPU perspective. Whatever memory mapping happens on the circuitry around is invisible to the CPU regardless. For all it knows, it might be having its tiny little wires hooked up to a sensor measuring air temperature and it'd have no idea ;P

[@BIGRIP87]

very very cool

[@naikrovek]

well this is awesome

[@varunahlawat9013]

WTF! teach me all of this! subscribed

[@artahir123]

i also want

[@Vallee152]

What does immediate mean?

[@zahidali8851]

For so wierd reason when I try to use the GMS it just make one loud noise..

[@abhishekcherath2323]

at 19:50, should that say ML?

[@socket5060]

I also think so. Probably a typo

[@GCKteamKrispy]

Занялся таким-же проектом, но решил использовать 74hc... для начала (4 бит), а выше уже хочу использовать FPGA Чистые транзисторы, это уже слишком для меня😂 Слишком много проводов и соединений