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Will we ever be able to make our own decent microprocessors? Are there any alternative concepts for microprocessor technology that could possibly be within the means of a dedicated amateur to build on their own? Or at least lower the barrier of entry for their manufacture?
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People have designed and built their own microprocessors out of discreet ICs, see MAGIC-1. Most people generally don't though as unless you design it yourself you're achieving the same as building a computer around a Z80 in a really roundabout way. There are also schematics out there for the Datapoint 2200 which uses an Intel 8008 compatible CPU assembled from discreet components (they're about 22 MB so I can't post them here).
There's that subleq/one-instruction-set computer on FPGA that a Holla Forumstard here as made too.
are you shitting on based jeri ellsworth? fuck outta here
'Based Jeri' is a fucking fraud, dude.
You're too young to know about how the C=1 Demo video she made was faked. When Individual Computers/Jens paid her for the licence to manufacture the C=1, he discovered everything like Audio/SID just didn't exist.
And the case with the 64DTV, with her deliberately sabotaging the design to fuck people over because... well, she already had a history of being a bitch.
Not even Bil Herd deals with her now-- and he's an alcoholic.
I trust you have an actual source for that claim.
Yes.
I don't know who the fuck she is. I just liked the idea of people being able to make their own computer hardware and I stumbled across this video of someone making transistors.
Problem is computers are now being designed on the hardware level to act as spyware, according to Jacob Applebaum.
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So it would really be nice if we could make our own fucking PCs. But the nature of the technology itself makes it impossible for anyone who doesn't have a few millions lying around. We would need to be able to make our own microchips, storage mediums, etc.
That's why I'm interested in any fundamentally different concepts in computer hardware, like optical computers for example, and whether they'd be easier & cheaper to build.
Best you're going to be able to do for building your own is either FPGAs which are very much not free or discreet components with which you would be able to compete with an 8086 machine (state of the art in 1978) at best but with more RAM. You would be better off just using older hardware instead, such as pre Intel ME/AMD PSP processors or however old you feel you have to go to get what you want. I'm pretty sure all AMD processors Piledriver or earlier (which includes their current high end FX line) are safe.
Forgot, here are the specs for the most powerful computer I've seen built from discreet components:
homebrewcpu.com
I'm pretty sure DIY lithography on the scale needed to make anything really worthwhile for practical use at home isn't really happening due to cost of equipment.
An optical breadboard would be incredible. Breadboards are shit-tier for high frequency anything because of all the capacitance between each pin hole, but if it was all optical? Holy fuck the only limitation is the size of your optical breadboard.
1993
While initially special SL versions were required for SMM, Intel incorporated SMM in its mainline 486 and Pentium processors in 1993. AMD implemented Intel's SMM with the Enhanced Am486 processors in 1994. It is available in all later microprocessors in the x86 architecture.
First paragraph: c64upgra.de
I've been meaning to read up on SMM but never got around to it, maybe I finally should as it sounds like almost the same problem as Intel's ME/AMD's PSP.
If it's as bad as that sentence makes it sound I wonder why it doesn't get brought up every time people talk about Intel's ME.
Also, don't forget to look into alternative CPU architectures as you may be able to find something that performs better and it's not like you're going to need to worry about x86 compatibility for games or anything if your first choice is a 386. I have a feeling I'm going to be up all night doing that
Started reading a bit about SMM and related attacks, it doesn't look good. Some information for those interested with links to related attacks in the references:
blog.invisiblethings.org
Forgot to add, while SMM is present in post 1993 x86 desktop processors, it's present in the low power consumption laptop versions of the 386 and 486 (the 386SL and 486SL) that date back to 1990.
Well I can go back to being hyped for Zen now or whatever Intel's newest shit is if I want to build a new x86 based computer. That's basically everything wrong with Intel's ME and AMD's PSP.
Well I personally don't want to go back to seventies architecture if I can help it. I'm enough of a computer geek to care about online privacy, not enough to get nostalgic for command line interfaces and CPU speeds measured in the tens of MHz, or whatever the fuck it was back then.
Could a hobbyist build a proof of concept Optical Computer? Is there any such thing? Doesn't matter how fast or big it is at first. If an optical computer would work faster than a conventional computer, all else being equal, (size, cost, power consumptiion, etc) then this presents a lower barrier of entry for creating your own computer hardware.
We need to get away from campanies that are being forced to compromise their own hardware by the NSA.
How many rooms does the breadboard take up?
What about Atmel AVR? Those should be powerful enough to emulate 8080 and run CP/M at least? (or another simple OS you write)
They didn't have to worry about heat as much as today so the boards could be densely packed. They wouldn't take up much more space than an ATX tower. Pics related are the Datapoint 2200 and here's the website of the guy who built the MAGIC-1 with pictures of the internals:
homebrewcpu.com
Z80s are still available for cheap though ($6-$12 depending on clock rate and form factor). Why emulate when you can just use the real thing?
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