<story><title>High school grad builds 8-bit computer from scratch</title><url>http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/wow-high-school-grad-builds-8-bit-computer-from-scratch-complete-with-custom-os-and-pong/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>tetrarchy</author><text>Wow, tough crowd here.  When I was in high school, the extent of my computer knowledge was a little visual basic.  After watching all of his videos, I&apos;m extremely impressed - it looks like he designed (or at least integrated) a lot of the hardware, operating systems, and applications himself. After a BS and now almost a MS in computer engineering I think I could (...eventually) pull something like this off, but this guy clearly spent a lot of time and effort on learning the ins and outs of computer architecture on his own, in high school no less.&lt;p&gt;To those complaining that this could be done on a fpga in verilog or something, I think that might be kind of missing the point.  There is just something about building the logic up from the ground that is very satisfying.  Hooking up the physical wires makes it all that much more real.  A huge time investment, but i got the feeling the kid spent a good deal of his free time on it.&lt;p&gt;So again, mad props.  Hope it gets him into a sweet school.</text></comment>
<story><title>High school grad builds 8-bit computer from scratch</title><url>http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/wow-high-school-grad-builds-8-bit-computer-from-scratch-complete-with-custom-os-and-pong/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>zeteo</author><text>By some definition of &quot;scratch&quot;, we&apos;ve also built 8-bit computers from scratch in my Electronics class. My respect for this student&apos;s accomplishment is proportional to how much of the processor he has designed and built himself; opcode design and management is a highly nontrivial task. On the other hand, if he has built the processor from pre-existing schematics, the accomplishment simply shows a steady soldering hand and good mental endurance.</text></comment>