ChrisFenton
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Chris Fenton follows up scale model Cray-1A with 3D-printed electromechanical computer, of course
Fans of the homebrew electronics scene may well be familiar with the name Chris Fenton, he of the DIY laptop and a working scale model of the Cray-1A supercomputer. Now he's back with yet another ambitious project: he's set out to build a fully functional electromechanical computer using a 3D printer to fabricate all the parts. That's still a ways from being completed, but Fenton has already finished one key component of it: the punch card reader. Head on past the break to see it in all its whizzing and buzzing glory.
Homebrew Cray-1A emulates the iconic supercomputer, to no useful purpose
The Cray-1A first made the scene in 1976, weighing 5.5 tons (including the refrigeration system) and running at 80MHz -- with a whopping 8MB RAM. Who wouldn't want to own one -- or a miniature version of one, for that matter? Chris Fenton would, apparently. Yes, it's that Chris Fenton -- the electrical engineer who once made a $50 laptop out of a PICAXE 18X Microcontroller and 96 bytes of RAM (and some wood). And he's back with a 1/10-scale Cray-1A. And unlike a similar project we've seen in the past, this bad boy runs a custom Cray emulator (too bad there doesn't seem to be any Cray software floating around). Wild, huh? Get the whole scoop (and some pointers if you want to roll your own) after the break.
How to blow a $50 note on a DIY, functionality-free "laptop"
Chris Fenton has a dremel, a few slabs of bass wood, and some nifty programming skills, and he'll be damned if he can't build himself a $50 laptop. At least that's the only way we can see anyone spending 4 months of their life building what would have been one mighty powerful machine - in 1974. Other than the impressively full-featured laptop keyboard (which we're pretty sure he didn't actually make himself), his project consists of a 20 x 4 character blue and white LCD display, some AA batteries, a wooden case (which hopefully won't catch on fire), and a few low-end processing components to make sure the whole thing comes in under budget, like a PICAXE 18X Microcontroller and a whole 96 bytes of RAM to address (though have no worries, Chris is planning on boosting that to a spankin' 8K before too long). The whole thing runs on Chris++, Chris's homebrewed programming language, which means he only has himself to blame when it doesn't run Doom.[Via Slashdot]
