Top all-time · #1898
Bradford Larsen
Personal blog · excamera.comhardwareprogramming
Bradford Larsen writes Excamera, a personal blog at excamera.com about hardware and programming. Since 2010, 41 different Hacker News readers have linked it 68 times, most often “J1a SwapForth built with IceStorm”. No feed was found, so read it on the site itself.
Most-linked posts?
- J1a SwapForth built with IceStorm6 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2015-07-27
- The J1 Forth CPU5 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2013-03-22
- The J1 Forth CPU5 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2019-09-18
- /sphinx/gameduino/4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2011-02-28
- A reasonably speedy Python ray tracer4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2016-06-06
- The J1 Forth CPU4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2020-07-09
- The J1 Forth CPU (2010)4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2010-12-04
- J1: a small Forth CPU Core for FPGAs [pdf]3 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2020-09-15
- Gameduino 2: this time it’s personal2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2013-10-08
- /sphinx/article-j1a-swapforth.html2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2022-11-27
What Hacker News says?
This always mede think back to J1 Forth CPU https://excamera.com/files/j1.pdf
Comment linking /files/j1.pdf
on “Show HN: I built a hardware processor that runs Python”Submitted The J1 Forth CPU as a story · 214 points
HN discussionThe first choice was the Gameduino, also an FPGA-based solution. I have misplaced my bookmark for the documentation covering the previous hardware revision, but current version 3X is MOAR POWAH just on its own, this seems to be a natural tendency: https://excamera.com/sphinx/gameduino3/index.html#about-game... Edit: found it! https://excamera.com/sphinx/gameduino/index.html
Comment linking /sphinx/gameduino/index.html
on “FuryGpu – Custom PCIe FPGA GPU”Submitted A reasonably speedy Python ray tracer as a story · 162 points
HN discussionNow more than ever because you can define it code. Here is a CPU written in 200 lines of Verilog. https://excamera.com/files/j1.pdf
Comment linking /files/j1.pdf
on “Project Oberon”Submitted The J1 Forth CPU as a story · 150 points
HN discussionI ran out to Barnes & Noble and bought your book right after seeing your post and seeing one nearby that had it in stock. (Amazon was going to take a couple weeks to send it. Actually some other company was the sender. Weird. Also I didn’t notice you had it online but I like having the book and paying you anyway. :) ) So I picked up the book Thursday and finished the basic ray tracer Friday :) Not counting chapter 5…
Comment linking /sphinx/article-ray.html
on “Ask HN: What HN post made you money?”Submitted The J1 Forth CPU as a story · 86 points
HN discussionI believe this was on hn recently (uses icestorm as mentioned by others): http://www.excamera.com/sphinx/article-j1a-swapforth.html
Comment linking /sphinx/article-j1a-swapforth.html
on “Why Use an FPGA Instead of a CPU or GPU?”Submitted Show HN: Compressed directories on Linux as a story · 70 points
HN discussionA quick google search yielded this: http://excamera.com/sphinx/fpga-cpu.html
Comment linking /sphinx/fpga-cpu.html
on “From Nand to Tetris: Building a Modern Computer from First Principles”Submitted The J1 Forth CPU (2010) as a story · 64 points
HN discussionHuh? There's loads of cheap dev kits for a few 10's of bucks on eBay. Example: http://www.ebay.com/itm/ALTERA-FPGA-Cyslonell-EP2C5T144-Mini... This uses the EP2C5T144. Some basic getting started info here: http://www.leonheller.com/FPGA/FPGA.html [Leon Heller] You can run a free copy of Quartus and use it to run Verilog / VHDL cpus, or anything else you want to do. Same applies to the Xilinx FPGAs. A really cool exa…
Comment linking /sphinx/fpga-j1.html
on “Ask HN: Where do I get started on ASICs, FPGA, RTL, Verilog et. al?”Submitted J1a SwapForth built with IceStorm as a story · 22 points
HN discussionGiven that you need a really simple ISA, and probably also good code density, how about a Forth CPU, like https://excamera.com/sphinx/fpga-j1.html ?
Comment linking /sphinx/fpga-j1.html
on “It's often said that the Analytical Engine was before its time”Submitted Show HN: First ever FPGA CPU built using open source tools? as a story · 13 points
HN discussionAlso worth checking out James’s simplified version designed for the Lattice iCE40 [1][2]. [1] https://www.excamera.com/sphinx/article-j1a-swapforth.html [2] https://youtube.com/watch?v=rdLgLCIDSk0
Comment linking /sphinx/article-j1a-swapforth.html
on “The J1 Forth CPU”Submitted Forth on the J1 – The CPU was designed to run Forth programs efficiently as a story · 5 points
HN discussionI totally agree here, if you want low level I think j1 forth ( http://www.excamera.com/sphinx/fpga-j1.html ) and for lisp I really liked http://www.buildyourownlisp.com which uses modern C libraries so it polishes your C knowledge too.
Comment linking /sphinx/fpga-j1.html
on “Ask HN: What's a starting point for learning how to write programming languages?”Submitted 100 MIPs FPGA-based CPU in under 200 lines of Verilog as a story · 5 points
HN discussionIf you are interested in a more "conventional" Forth chip, check out the J1[1]. It's 200 lines of verilog, so you can put it on an FPGA pretty easily. But it's even easier than that because the J1 is the basis of the Gameduino[2]. The Gameduino is a shield for Arduino that gives you a VGA interface, sprites, and graphics. [1]: http://www.excamera.com/sphinx/fpga-j1.html [2]: http://excamera.com/sphinx/gameduino/
Comment linking /sphinx/gameduino/
on “Chuck Moore's Creations”Submitted J1: A Small Forth CPU Core for FPGAs [pdf] as a story · 4 points
HN discussionI've been doing exactly this for ten years, keeping the bookmarks file in Git. I added 70 bookmarks today, which is more than average. But rather than just a "title" I have whatever seems like I might want to search for later, including if the link rots. So it's more of a summmary. With hashtags. In Markdown (though without newlines). Each new day gets a header. Here's Sunday, with blank lines added to get reasonabl…
Comment linking /sphinx/article-j1a-swapforth.html
on “Bookmarks.txt is a concept of keeping URLs in plain text files”Submitted Show HN: Batch color correcting images as a story · 3 points
HN discussionthe chip can do some video, but low res: - https://excamera.com/sphinx/store.html#gameduino-3x-dazzler-... - https://www.adafruit.com/product/4984
Comment linking /sphinx/store.html
on “Raspberry Silicon update: RP2040 on sale now at $1”Submitted CHIP-8: 40 Games on an Arduino Uno as a story · 3 points
HN discussionI've heard of the ZPU in passing but never looked in much detail - I didn't realize there was a GCC back-end for these machines. James Bowman's J1 CPU [0] is also stack-based and has definitely helped me shape my preferences. [0]: https://excamera.com/files/j1.pdf
Comment linking /files/j1.pdf
on “Show HN: Minimax – A Compressed-First, Microcoded RISC-V CPU”Submitted J1a SwapForth built with IceStorm as a story · 2 points
HN discussionI have something along those lines in progress now... if you mail me at the address on this page: http://excamera.com/sphinx/index.html I will let you know when it launches.
Comment linking /sphinx/index.html
on “The J1 Forth CPU”Submitted A reasonably speedy Python ray-tracer as a story · 2 points
HN discussion
