The CFT Book

Given my limited time, keeping good notes has been essential. It allowed me to work on the project even when physically removed from the workbench. I was eventually surprised to find I had over 500 pages of various types of documentation (in various states of incorrectness). Here they all are, converted from the original LaTeX source. Please be aware that these are drafts, potentially years out of date, and the conversion isn't quite working yet.

Please bear in mind that most of the material here is still being converted from my old site, so chapters may be missing and many links will be broken for a while.

Here's what's mostly complete:

A1. Introduction
A2. Tools Used
B1. Programming Model
B2. Theory of Operation
B3. Buses
B4. Implementation
B5. Microcode
C1. MEM: the Memory Board
C2. DEB: the Debugging Board
C3. DFP: the Debugging Front Panel

Hardware
The CFT Project

Part A: Front Matter

Introductory material to the CFT. Summary of the project, conventions, et cetera.

Contents:

A1. Introduction
A2. Tools Used

Chapter A1: Introduction

An introduction to both the CFT project and the CFT Book.

April 2015

hardware

Chapter A2: Tools Used

A discussion of various software and hardware tools used in the CFT Project.

December 2018

hardware

Part B: The Processor

This part describes the CFT processor, its design and implementation.

Contents (fit to see the light of day):

B1. The Programming Model
B2. Theory of Operation
B3. Buses
B4. Implementation
B5. Microcode

Chapter B1. Programming Model

This chapter describes the CFT's programming model at the machine code level.

April 2015

hardware

12K

Chapter B2. Theory of Operation

This chapter describes the CFT processor from a theoretical perspective.

April 2015

hardware

18K

Chapter B4. Implementation

This chapter describes the implementation and construction of the CFT processor.

December 2018

hardware

Chapter B3. Buses

This chapter describes the buses used by the processor and computer (peripherals included), including their pin-out and operation.

April 2015

hardware

Chapter B5. Microcode

A description of the CFT Processor's Microcode and how it operates the rest of the units in the processor. Includes a listing of the microcode in the simple mcasm language.

April 2015

hardware

Part C: Peripherals

A processor isn't much use without some peripherals. Like many minicomputers, the CFT processor has a very close relationship with its peripherals—the line between instruction set extensions and peripherals can be blurred. Basic components for a modern computer like memory are described here, too.

Contents:

C1. MEM: the Memory Board
C2. DEB: the Debugging Board
C3. DFP: the Debugging Front Panel

MEM: The Memory Board

The Memory Board supplies the computer with 512 KWords of ROM and 512 or 1,024 kWords of RAM using the Memory Banking Unit's extended 21-bit address space.

April 2015

hardware