Pete's Log: JAM-8?
Entry #2224, (Coding, Hacking, & CS stuff, Meta)(posted when I was 44 years old.)
What I have (from way back when):
- C code for a JAM-8 simulator (primarily written by Marty)
- JAM-8 VHDL
- Various JAM-8 assembly files and matching binary files
- Reports we handed in
What I don't have:
- Documentation on the JAM-8 assembly language
- An assembler
JAM-8 was the final project for CSE 322 (Computer Architecture II). This was during the second semester of my junior year, in the spring of 1999. The other CSE classes I was taking that semester were CSE 341 (Operating Systems) and CSE 346 (Database Concepts).
Pete's Log was still in its infancy. Before that semester I had only written nine entries, and at that time everything was still manually updated HTML. I wrote 39 entries over the course of the semester, with the longest clocking in at a mere 298 characters.
I mention "VHDL" once in those entries with no details beyond "debugged some vhdl". That appears to be the only thing I wrote that semester related to CSE 322.
What this all means is getting my old JAM-8 code VHDL code ported to the Tang Nano 9k would prove fairly boring on its own, since I don't have a good way of generating programs to run.
I also realized that I probably have more memories of Arun's absurd (ly awesome) implementation of JAM-8 than of my own. Especially since I basically took no notes beyond the reports for class, and those reports all assume a knowledge of JAM-8 based on class handouts I no longer have.
But let's return to the present for a moment. The HackerBox documentation links to a fun Tang Nano 9K: Our First CPU tutorial. From there I learn that the Tang Nano 9K has 4MB of flash memory, which seems like a fun thing to utilize. Plus I can take
The assembly language implemented in that post uses a built-in "PRNT" instruction to write a character to the screen. Things to think about.
But right now, the sun is shining and the chicken coop needs cleaning.