Ashet Home Computer

Even on Amazon the ESP32 is less than $5 - means like $1 in Shanghai. Various sensors (even the ones with Bluetooth connectivity) are similarly dirt cheap. You can have a bin of such components like you would have a bin of bolts and nuts 30+ years. Basically we live in a golden era of development (which can disappear in US due to tariffs)

>If we think what can come beyond screens and imagine more ambient computing systems - maybe we’ll see new and interesting innovations

my bet is that it will be more robotics related with practically no humans involved. It is a bit of paradoxical - like for example if we add enough development to existing robots we can for example have an AMZN warehouse run fully without people which in turn would mean that we can have robots there much simpler in various aspects as the absence of humans relaxes a bunch of requirements.

That's gonna be a while coming - we're now entering a stage where we won't even understand the code that gets written.

Now, sure, some holdouts will understand the code, but that's not going to be the norm soon.

You're absolutely right! I wasn't there either, and i wouldnt want a terminal-only machine.

My goal is providing means and knowledge to those that want it. The Ashet is more meant for technical schools, apprenticeship and "the interested", and definitly requires an initial spark that will make that project interesting to you.

It's here to fill a (percieved) gap and wants to sit more in the professional education part than the "get the kids to computing".

I'd love to have had such a hands-on device in school instead of the bare theory of circuit operation and basics of programming.

However I will question some design choices!

- 32-bit only: the writing is on the wall, many vendors (HW&SW) are slowly moving to kill it off. I guess it's fine, but IMHO each ISA (regardless of pointer width) should just be considered a different ISA. Portability is good, it ensures your software doesn't hardcode too many assumptions about the platform - and weeds out bugs. Just treat an int like an int, and a pointer like a pointer. Distinct types.

- Pure co-op multitasking: it will be completely fine, until you try serious in-system development. Hard reboot any time I make a mistake in a for-loop? Mercy, please :,) Implementing a simple watchdog via a timer interrupt will still keep all of the scheduling logic simple and stupid: it's just another case for a yield call, except now involuntary. The runaway process will simply never see completion, but seeing that it would never yield anyway, I don't see a problem just killing it. And most importantly, the sanity shall be preserved.

I just don't think modern CPUs really quite fit the claim of "fully understandable by a single person". I mean maybe technically but that is misleading in an educational context where there are much simpler computers that are definitely fully understandable.

Maybe all of the stuff he wraps around the main CPU is understandable though. And the expansion cards are cool.

I'm also having ADHD but you can get help with the focus problem ;)

It's incredible to work for many years on the same thing and it's so pleasing to have steady progress.

So: Go, start building a vision for your cyberdeck! Having a clear goal helps you working towards building it, and you cam embrace the ADHD by jumping around between the many aspects of such a project.

sw design, hw design, visual design, mechanical design, handcrafting, soldering, programming, making websites, asking people, ...

It now took me 3 iterations and 3 years to get a somehow working risc-v CPU written in VHDL, that I am mostly satisfied with. It's a crazy hard struggle (finally pipelined though!). Everything breaks, I constantly get headaches and almost want to quit, but somehow I can keep on pushing this project. It helps me a lot.

Almost nothing works, things break all the time, it doesn't even look cool. But somehow it's satisfying that I can type words with a PS/2 keyboard on a VGA screen getting processed by my own RISC-V CPU (running Rust btw lol. I ditched that by now though, the struggle was too big). See here: https://i.imgur.com/PtKeAYt.mp4

I have no idea how far I can make it, maybe not fully self-hosted, but a small OS should be doable. I have interrupts and timers working, so I should have everything I need.

The downside is, I am way worse than OP and have no documentation at all. I should do that, but that's where the motivation is missing.

Edit: I type so slow in the video because I did poll the scancodes (too slow) and had to think which characters not to press, because i dont accept all yet and was scared that it breaks

There are many tricks to stay focused, particularly when there are no stakeholders but you. Try a body double, someone to keep you in check - you can also return the favor, like working from the same room, or just coming to their home to watch them clean while you do your stuff.

When you do get hyperfixated on something - that can be a very productive period, until you crash. Again, bring in a friend. Not to get back to it - just to make sure you're still eating. Don't push yourself to either side, find your own balance around it - I've picked up many hobbies where I've slowed down, but maintained interest over the years, decades.

Look for buddies in your local neurodivergent group, there's usually one somewhere near you. (Even here on HN, it turns out.)

http://toastytech.com/guis/a2geos.html

https://youtu.be/_4nthOx8sA4?si=AiK9bRxRQwV3MB0f

There's also this Atari homebrew

https://youtu.be/T14dL9MeMHE?si=cGtsZGWILYi4jcql

And yes the IIGS had one

https://youtu.be/YvVFTpukAp0?si=UtvV3N_pKhxU-Tyb

I know, i know! This is what makes me a bit sad. I dont know of any modern compiler i can use on the platform, as most hobby compilers target aarch64 or 32/64 bit x86.

What i need tho is a compiler that targets Arm/Thumb-2.

My research tells me that this confines me to: - A non-complete patch series for TCC (maybe) - LLVM - GCC

As twonof them obviously won't run on 8 MB, my options are stripped down to:

- Evaluate CBE and write my own backend and add 32 bit support - Write my own compiler + backend

Both options don't sound viable before the release as they would increase the scope greatly.

It can be done - if you take a holistic approach to hardware + runtime + development environment.

The Propeller probably failed because of the custom language, the custom assembly syntax, the custom ISA, the custom IDE font (!) etc. It was a very neat system though.

So I'm pretty sure there are plenty of folks who understand whats going on, especially if they approach their study of the Ashet from the perspective of the RP2350.

Basically, its one hell of a swiss army knife for building computer systems.

That sounds exactly what i had in mind, and i really wanna do the same when my boy is old enough for computers.

It's a teaching tool and a fun toy to tinker with

Please take a look at the gallery, where there are photos of the actual electronics setups!

Also don't the mechanical mockups count as hardware? A pile of jumperwires, breadboards and devices don't make a good hero image, but physical hardware mockups do.

Also the electronics design in its current form is actually iteration 5 of the system, while the OS development started with iteration 2.

The OS does boot on the electrical prototype