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Re: Novix NB4300

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On 9/8/2016 5:35 PM, Albert van der Horst wrote:
> In article <nqsd8b$k11$1@dont-email.me>,
> Cecil Bayona  <cbayona@cbayona.com> wrote:
>> On 9/8/2016 1:22 PM, Albert van der Horst wrote:
>>> In article <nqs1v3$8o0$1@dont-email.me>, rickman  <gnuarm@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> On 9/5/2016 7:06 AM, rickman wrote:
>>>>> On 9/5/2016 4:24 AM, JUERGEN wrote:
>>>>>> On Sunday, September 4, 2016 at 7:02:12 PM UTC+1, rickman wrote:
>>>>>>> On 9/4/2016 11:54 AM, Cecil Bayona wrote:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> On 9/4/2016 1:28 AM, JUERGEN wrote:
>>>>>>>>> On Saturday, September 3, 2016 at 5:21:07 PM UTC+1, Cecil -
>>>>>>>>> k5nwa wrote:
>>>>>>>>>> On 9/3/2016 8:36 AM, JUERGEN wrote:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> This is a very old article and I hope there is a response.
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> I would also be interested in a copy of the articles, the
>>>>>>>>>> more information the better when trying to implement a FPGA
>>>>>>>>>> version of the CPU, right now I have little information.
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> Thanks -- Cecil - k5nwa
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> The J1  might be a good starting point and the Verilog is
>>>>>>>>> available https://github.com/samawati/j1eforth
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Are you sure they are similar? I have a little documentation on
>>>>>>>> the Novix CPU and of the J1 and their architecture seem to be
>>>>>>>> quite different, but then I'm going by memory, not the most
>>>>>>>> reliable thing. I'll look into it as time permits.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> No, aside from using stacks, they are not so similar.  I must have
>>>>>>>  missed the original post where you talked about wanting to work
>>>>>>> with the Novix devices.  What exactly is your interest and what do
>>>>>>> you have to work with so far?
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> --
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Rick C
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I assume J1 is the closest as a starting point. The J1 Verilog could
>>>>>> be used as starting point I assume. If not, one has to start from
>>>>>> scratch. One other source of info is C.H. Ting [1987]. “Footsteps in
>>>>>> an Empty Valley”, 1987, Offete, Enterprises, San Mateo, California.
>>>>>
>>>>> I'm not sure how the code for a simple stack machine would help you much
>>>>> for coding up a totally different stack machine.  The code is not hard
>>>>> to write.  What is hard is understanding what the CPU is supposed to do.
>>>>>  If you have a full spec on the instructions of the NOVIX as well as a
>>>>> full register specification, it should be an easy thing to figure out
>>>>> the register transfer operations required to implement the instructions.
>>>>>  The coding of this would then be very straight forward.  Figuring out
>>>>> optimizations to make it run faster or fastest would be harder.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>> My interest is to see it running again in FPGA. I just received 2
>>>>>> different implementations of the CDP1802 in Lattice DevBoards which
>>>>>> somebody kindly flashed for me, and the is the one James Bowman did
>>>>>> as well. The same I would like to see for Novix and other Forth
>>>>>> processors. No commercial interest. Forth information is disappearing
>>>>>> so quickly, so I might do another eBook - Forth Processors - next
>>>>>> year
>>>>>
>>>>> If someone did the leg work and provided a complete spec of the Novix
>>>>> adequate to do the design without a lot of guesswork, I would be willing
>>>>> to code the thing.  It would be in VHDL though.  Or I might be willing
>>>>> to do it in Verilog as getting proficient in Verilog is one of my long
>>>>> term goals.  I believe it was Bernd Paysan who insisted that once you
>>>>> try Verilog you will never go back to VHDL.  I'm happy with VHDL but if
>>>>> Verilog is Nirvana, I guess I should get on board.
>>>>
>>>> I found a web page that describes the various instruction encodings
>>>> although not the detailed descriptions of the instructions.
>>>>
>>>> https://users.ece.cmu.edu/~koopman/stack_computers/sec4_4.html
>>>>
>>>> Some of the instructions are obvious such as the subroutine call, it
>>>> pushes the current PC on the stack and loads immediate the instruction
>>>> data to the PC.  But then there are always questions...  The value
>>>> pushed on the stack can be the current instruction pointer or a pointer
>>>> to the next instruction.  This is not specified.  Accessing the return
>>>> address directly will give wrong results if this is not specified properly.
>>>>
>>>> The other instructions are similarly vague.  Before trying to code
>>>> anything, I would want to clear up details like this.  Is there a better
>>>> source of info?
>>>
>>> Of course. The Novix board came with complete documentation.
>>> The 12 boards we have all have a set of documentation.
>>> Now this documentation may not be readily available on the net.
>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>>
>>>> Rick C
>>>
>>> Groetjes Albert
>>>
>> So those 12 boards  and documentation for sale, loan, or what?
>
> Did you miss this (in one of my other followups) ?
>
> "We can certainly part with one of the sets."
>
> So yes. We can dig one up and send it to a person who is going
> to scan the manuals. (provided the board of directors of the
> Dutch Forth Chapter approves and the barn where we keep stuff
> has not burned down)
>
> Groetjes Albert
>
>> --
>> Cecil - k5nwa
>
> Groetjes Albert
>
I would definitely be interested, depending on the size I can also 
transcribe the text so it can be used by a word processor and not just a 
photo of the pages. A real boar would be sweet to compare against the 
FPGA version.

-- 
Cecil - k5nwa

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Re: Novix NB4300 JUERGEN <epldfpga@aol.com> - 2016-09-03 06:36 -0700
  Re: Novix NB4300 Cecil Bayona <cbayona@cbayona.com> - 2016-09-03 11:21 -0500
    Re: Novix NB4300 JUERGEN <epldfpga@aol.com> - 2016-09-03 23:28 -0700
      Re: Novix NB4300 Cecil Bayona <cbayona@cbayona.com> - 2016-09-04 10:54 -0500
        Re: Novix NB4300 rickman <gnuarm@gmail.com> - 2016-09-04 14:02 -0400
          Re: Novix NB4300 Cecil Bayona <cbayona@cbayona.com> - 2016-09-04 13:34 -0500
          Re: Novix NB4300 JUERGEN <epldfpga@aol.com> - 2016-09-05 01:24 -0700
            Re: Novix NB4300 rickman <gnuarm@gmail.com> - 2016-09-05 07:06 -0400
              Re: Novix NB4300 JUERGEN <epldfpga@aol.com> - 2016-09-05 08:17 -0700
                Re: Novix NB4300 Cecil Bayona <cbayona@cbayona.com> - 2016-09-05 11:34 -0500
                Re: Novix NB4300 JUERGEN <epldfpga@aol.com> - 2016-09-05 11:24 -0700
                Re: Novix NB4300 Cecil Bayona <cbayona@cbayona.com> - 2016-09-05 13:42 -0500
                Re: Novix NB4300 albert@cherry.spenarnc.xs4all.nl (Albert van der Horst) - 2016-09-06 11:50 +0200
                Re: Novix NB4300 Cecil Bayona <cbayona@cbayona.com> - 2016-09-06 08:22 -0500
                Re: Novix NB4300 albert@cherry.spenarnc.xs4all.nl (Albert van der Horst) - 2016-09-06 21:05 +0200
                Re: Novix NB4300 Cecil Bayona <cbayona@cbayona.com> - 2016-09-06 14:31 -0500
                Re: Novix NB4300 Paul Rubin <no.email@nospam.invalid> - 2016-09-06 14:43 -0700
                Re: Novix NB4300 Cecil Bayona <cbayona@cbayona.com> - 2016-09-06 17:00 -0500
                Re: Novix NB4300 Mark Wills <markwills1970@gmail.com> - 2016-09-07 02:43 -0700
                Re: Novix NB4300 albert@cherry.spenarnc.xs4all.nl (Albert van der Horst) - 2016-09-07 14:22 +0200
                Re: Novix NB4300 Cecil Bayona <cbayona@cbayona.com> - 2016-09-08 00:40 -0500
                Re: Novix NB4300 Paul Rubin <no.email@nospam.invalid> - 2016-09-07 23:12 -0700
                Re: Novix NB4300 Cecil Bayona <cbayona@cbayona.com> - 2016-09-08 09:10 -0500
                Re: Novix NB4300 albert@cherry.spenarnc.xs4all.nl (Albert van der Horst) - 2016-09-09 14:45 +0200
                Re: Novix NB4300 Cecil Bayona <cbayona@cbayona.com> - 2016-09-09 10:45 -0500
                Re: Novix NB4300 albert@cherry.spenarnc.xs4all.nl (Albert van der Horst) - 2016-09-10 10:01 +0200
                Re: Novix NB4300 Cecil Bayona <cbayona@cbayona.com> - 2016-09-10 11:01 -0500
                Re: Novix NB4300 Cecil Bayona <cbayona@cbayona.com> - 2016-09-10 12:11 -0500
                Re: Novix NB4300 Matthias Trute <matthias.trute@gmail.com> - 2016-09-10 10:32 -0700
              Re: Novix NB4300 rickman <gnuarm@gmail.com> - 2016-09-08 12:00 -0400
                Re: Novix NB4300 Cecil Bayona <cbayona@cbayona.com> - 2016-09-08 11:11 -0500
                Re: Novix NB4300 rickman <gnuarm@gmail.com> - 2016-09-08 13:20 -0400
                Re: Novix NB4300 Cecil Bayona <cbayona@cbayona.com> - 2016-09-08 12:40 -0500
                Re: Novix NB4300 rickman <gnuarm@gmail.com> - 2016-09-08 14:14 -0400
                Re: Novix NB4300 albert@cherry.spenarnc.xs4all.nl (Albert van der Horst) - 2016-09-08 20:22 +0200
                Re: Novix NB4300 Cecil Bayona <cbayona@cbayona.com> - 2016-09-08 14:13 -0500
                Re: Novix NB4300 albert@cherry.spenarnc.xs4all.nl (Albert van der Horst) - 2016-09-09 00:35 +0200
                Re: Novix NB4300 Cecil Bayona <cbayona@cbayona.com> - 2016-09-08 17:31 -0500
    Re: Novix NB4300 Syd Rumpo <usenet@nononono.co.uk> - 2016-09-04 23:27 +0100
    Re: Novix NB4300 Syd Rumpo <usenet@nononono.co.uk> - 2016-09-04 23:47 +0100
      Re: Novix NB4300 Cecil Bayona <cbayona@cbayona.com> - 2016-09-04 18:02 -0500
      Re: Novix NB4300 jim.brakefield@ieee.org - 2016-09-04 16:19 -0700
        Re: Novix NB4300 Syd Rumpo <usenet@nononono.co.uk> - 2016-09-05 00:25 +0100
        Re: Novix NB4300 Cecil Bayona <cbayona@cbayona.com> - 2016-09-04 18:51 -0500
          Re: Novix NB4300 jim.brakefield@ieee.org - 2016-09-04 17:30 -0700
            Re: Novix NB4300 Cecil Bayona <cbayona@cbayona.com> - 2016-09-04 19:48 -0500
              Re: Novix NB4300 jim.brakefield@ieee.org - 2016-09-04 20:22 -0700
        Re: Novix NB4300 Lars Brinkhoff <lars.spam@nocrew.org> - 2016-09-05 08:14 +0200

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