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Tube❄️Time

according to the datasheet, it is an NMOS device, and it requires three power supply voltages: 5V, 12V (!) and -8V (!!). the 5V supply is for the IO, the 12V supply is for the core voltage, and the -8V supply is the substrate bias.

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Tube❄️Time

using the resistors, i wired the 16 data lines to the NOP instruction. and the CPU appears to be running!

on top is the clock trace (12V logic!) and in the middle is the IDS (input data strobe), and on the bottom is the NADS (address strobe). yes, the chip has NADS.

Tube❄️Time

i've added some 74-series latches to demux the address lines from the data lines. to get it to fit in a 40-pin package, the address bus is muxed with the data bus. the LEDs indicate the current address, and they count up! the program counter is counting.

Tube❄️Time

the next step is to add some program memory. it is all 16 bit, so i am using two 8 bit flash memory chips.

Tube❄️Time

i guess i should write a program. there is an assembler that supports this architecture (john.ccac.rwth-aachen.de:8000/) but i'll get that working later. for now i will just write it in machine code.

 00 JMP@ 1 - 10011000 00000001 = 9801
 01 data .9 - 00000000 00001001 = 0009
 02 0000
 03 0000
 04 0000
 05 0000
 06 0000
 07 0000
 08 0000
 09 SFLG 11   - 0011 1011 10000000 = 3B80
 0A CFLG 11   - 0011 1011 00000000 = 3B00
 0B JMP 09    - 00011000 00001001 = 1809
Tube❄️Time

and we have a blinking LED! this is being driven from one of the 4 flag outputs on the CPU.

Tube❄️Time

the bus timing looks like this. the top trace is the clock, then there is NADS, IDS (input data strobe), and finally the F11 output (which is driving the LED). i cheated and slowed the clock down for the video so you could see it blink.

🇺🇦 haxadecimal

@tubetime +12V was common for early NMOS, before depletion loads, but usually Vgg (before substrate bias generators) was -5V. Oddball Vgg voltages were sometimes specified in order to have better performance or better margins. A few chips, even in production (!) had a Vgg value determined by production test hand-written on the IC package!

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