I’ve been wanting to build something cool out of relays for a really long time. I was originally inspired when I was reading the book Code by Charles Petzold. Then a short time later I ended up taking my favorite class ever which was a hardware class focused on CPU architecture when I was studying for my MS. I decided then to build a computer out of relays. Sadly the cost was going to be prohibitive so it was limited to a bunch of drawings and notes.
But the time has come to start this project. It may take years to complete but every journey begins with a first step and I’m taking it!
My friend Troy has agreed to help me out and he’ll be documenting the project here on this blog. But I wanted to at least mention that we’re going to start. I’m quite excited and I’ve started sketching out some designs for a 4bit computer with an accumulator design. The ALU will be the first part we’re going to build and I’ve got that mostly designed already. It’s looking like 100-200 relays, which, plus other parts is going to run me over $1000. And this is just for one part of the computer!
Stay tuned for some scans of the notes and stuff!
