It has been a while since I wrote the last post about this project. In the meantime, I was able to dedicate all my free time to work on the implementation. As I was making really good progress, the calculator started taking shape. My excitement grew and I just could not stop the work to write about it.
...continue reading "A Calculator – Completed!"Category: Software
A Calculator (4): The Framework
For as long as I remember, I had played with LEGOs. Those simple blocks would transform into complex objects whose final shape only existed in the supple thoughts of creative imagination. The kind of LEGO blocks we had while growing up were simple: 2x4, 2x2, 1x8. Anything unusual was rare and precious.
...continue reading "A Calculator (4): The Framework"
A Calculator (3): Practical Numerical Methods
In the last post, we have verified and quantified the precision of the basic four functions (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division), and now we can use them as a steppingstone. We can assume they will be available to us so our experimentation at this stage could simply use built-in C++ functions.
In this article, which is the third in a series, we will continue with the proof-of-concept research.
...continue reading "A Calculator (3): Practical Numerical Methods"
A Calculator (2): Basic Four Functions
This is the second article in a series on making our very own calculator.
...continue reading "A Calculator (2): Basic Four Functions"
A Calculator
The idea for this project came about during a week of freezing winter arctic event here in Austin, Texas, with a failed power grid as well as government, while keeping close to a gas fireplace, the only source of heat and light, for a couple of days. With a weak internet over a phone data line, I could only do some preliminary searches and mainly work out various details on a writing pad, growing a feeling that the project may be personally exciting and practically doable.
The idea for this project came about during a week of freezing winter arctic event here in Austin, Texas, with a failed power grid as well as government, while keeping close to a gas fireplace, the only source of heat and light, for a couple of days. With a weak internet over a phone data line, I could only do some preliminary searches and mainly work out various details on a writing pad, growing a feeling that the project may be personally exciting and practically doable.
I will try to post my progress over the coming weeks.
...continue reading "A Calculator"Flight Sim Remote Panel
Flight Sim Remote Panel (or its alias name, "XPlaneRemote") is an Android application that shows the basic general aviation instrument set on your Android phone or a tablet. It is not a flight simulator - a copy of X-Plane 11 should be running on your desktop or a laptop - this application connects to it from an Android device and displays the flight instruments, hence the "remote panel" in its name.
...continue reading "Flight Sim Remote Panel"PlayZX
PlayZX is an Android application that lets you select from thousands of Sinclair ZX Spectrum games and play them through the headphone jack to load them onto your Speccy. You can also select your local (on the device) files, convert them to sound files, and then play them. This way you can load games for not only the ZX Spectrum micro but also a few other retro computers that have a compatible audio jack.
...continue reading "PlayZX"Z80 Explorer
Z80 Explorer is a Zilog Z80 netlist-level simulator capable of running Z80 machine code and also an educational tool with features that help reverse engineer and understand this chip better.
...continue reading "Z80 Explorer"Development PC Setup
This blog post describes the various tools that I use for both work and hobby projects, on my development PC.
...continue reading "Development PC Setup"ZX Spectrum ROM mods
In this blog, I will show you how to interface an Atari-style joystick to the Altera DE1 FPGA board running a Spectrum implementation, how to change the ROM to enable you to input some game-cheat pokes, and a few games I eventually completed using this setup.