My4th Light – Custom 8-Bit Forth CPU | Hacker News Reader

My4th Light – Custom 8-Bit Forth CPU

mynor.org

97 pointsfallat9 comments

Extremely inspired by Forth, when I discovered this custom CPU design specifically for Forth I couldnt hold myself and went on the expedition to purchase the parts to build one. Unfortunately it only made sense to build 5 and sell 4 to cover costs.

I have 3 remaining My4th Lights I'm looking to sell, and given how niche this space is, I figured I'd try here on the business-tech focused YCombinator. I've sold one to a very happy customer.

I finally got the time to write up a proper little sales page:

http://len.falken.directory/my4th-light/

What a great project! I hope stuff like this is still around when I retire, because right now it would just collect dust and make my heart heavy because I don't have the time to pursue such a hobby

If it's any peace of mind, the parts to build them should be available pretty much forever. It's possible I do more runs in the future :) Just for the sake of growing the Forth hardware community!

> the parts to build them should be available pretty much forever

I find that's the most interesting aspect of this board. It's an excellent addition to permacomputing-optimized designs. It's a simple digital civilisation landmark for the ages. Or if you're pessimistic, the ultimate fallback computer.

CollapseOS is a FORTH based system too, based on that exact premise.

http://collapseos.org/

Where are the benchmarks? How many far cries can it run simultaneously? Does it make you cooler than Ben Eater?

(Also could you compare it to Chuck Moore's GA144 (core)?)

The manual has a nice benchmark: "5200 additions per second" B)

Probably 0.0001 Far-crys. My best guess!

Ben Eater? What're they eating? :D

Chuck Moore's GA144 requires a fabrication factory to create. My4th doesn't! How's that for a comparison?

You now have 2̶ 1 remaining My4th Lights.

I love this. "Do we really need TWO hc161's, so gross and wasteful..." I ridiculously approve.

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