So this boy genius creates his own computer...

[Joakim Christiansen]

Gotta see this!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYvr0b8jqbg
More info: http://www.ostracodfiles.com/adeptpage/menu.html
I think he is just 19 years old now and he started doing this stuff when he was even younger. I must that say I am a bit jealous, creating his own CPU with his own instruction set is really a nice achievement for a person ANY age!

Inspired I found the program Logisim where one can create and simulate such computers by laying out the schematic. I have not tried to make one yet but I played around with transistors to create the different logic gates and this inspired me even further into starting to create my own simulator (which may or may not be finished sometime in the future).
Logisim link: http://ozark.hendrix.edu/~burch/logisim/

I hope you all enjoy!

[luis]

Wow! I just looked at the list of the chips used, very simple stuff (the ICs I mean, not the project) !

Wozniak, eat his shorts !

Back to the site now...

Thanks for the links

[freak]

You don't have to be a genius to do that. You just need lots of free time

[Joakim Christiansen]

You don't have to be a genius to do that. You just need lots of free time

True that even "normal" people can achieve most things if they just have enough time, health and patience, I guess that's how I managed to do the things I've done (+ the lack of social life)

But I still feel like calling this kid a genius!

[luis]

You just need lots of free time

Ok you don't need to be a genius, but it requires a lot of knowledge in more than one field to pull out something like that at that age.
And overcome all the hurdles from theory to reality it's another big step he made.

That's impressive.

Considering most people of his age are often "bored" (so lack of free time is not an excuse) and that when they think "what can I do this evening ? go to a movie or waste myself with my friends ?" that's the pinnacle of their thought process I can only be ecstatic when I see something like this.

To me is a genius too !

[blueb]

You don't have to be a genius to do that. You just need lots of free time

You've got it all wrong Freak! This is the mark of a true genius... getting everyone to do your work so that you can play!

[netmaestro]

Hmm.. wonder which one of those 'chips' is the Raspberry Pi...

Just kidding, put away the flamethrowers

[jassing]

While doing it (with project boards no less) is impressive; he's not the only one to have done a home-brew 8bit computer....

One of the more impressive DIY projects is a guy that built a scanning electron microscope out of spare parts from the ground up. (iow: he didn't "fix one" , he actually built one in his garage).

[BorisTheOld]

This kid is just building on the knowledge of others. Had he done his project in the 1940's I might be a bit more impressed.

[skywalk]

Ha! Who isn't building on prior knowledge and discoveries
While genius is loosely tossed about, very smart cannot be argued.

[luis]

This kid is just building on the knowledge of others.

The mentality and attitude it's his own though, and that's what makes him a hacker now and maybe a curios scientist tomorrow. Or at the worst a better person. A builder, a problem solver, not a user.

The building on the knowledge of others it's old like the discovery of fire, with a small, innovative jump from time to time happening almost simultaneously in different parts of the world, even if just one end in the history's books.
That's how progress work.

We should be happy to have "kids" (or adults for that matter) doing things "just" like these.

The previous knowledge is there for anyone, in any field, yet the majority doesn't know what's electricity is (for example) beyond the fact that when it's out you can't see the TV. An what's worst is they don't care.

So I'm impressed by his mere existence.

[LuCiFeR[SD]]

This kid is just building on the knowledge of others. Had he done his project in the 1940's I might be a bit more impressed.

Like nobody else built on the ideas of others...

It doesn't matter "when" it was done... its more the fact that he got off his arse and built it, instead of waiting for somebody else to do it for him!

I have a lot of respect for any person who wants to learn how stuff is made. Without the likes of Boulton, Watt, Newcomen and others before them, the industrial revolution that led to all of this modern technology would never have happened now would it. They all built on prior technologies so to speak.

You never know, this kid could be the one of the people to revolutionise the next stage in the computers evolution.

[Little John]

This kid is just building on the knowledge of others.

The mentality and attitude it's his own though, and that's what makes him a hacker now and maybe a curios scientist tomorrow. Or at the worst a better person. A builder, a problem solver, not a user.

The building on the knowledge of others it's old like the discovery of fire, with a small, innovative jump from time to time happening almost simultaneously in different parts of the world, even if just one end in the history's books.
That's how progress work.

We should be happy to have "kids" (or adults for that matter) doing things "just" like these.

The previous knowledge is there for anyone, in any field, yet the majority doesn't know what's electricity is (for example) beyond the fact that when it's out you can't see the TV. An what's worst is they don't care.

So I'm impressed by his mere existence.

Very well put, Luis!

BTW: The "boy" who did projects like that in the 1940s was named Konrad Zuse.