3D implementation of ALU (wow!)

[ybakos]

A former student shared this with me, I've just got to pass it along: A video clip of a 3D rendering of the Hack ALU using the "Minecraft" toolkit.

[Uli Kastlunger]

I just wanted to post this too. It's amazing and good advertisement for TECS! By the way Minecraft is actually a computer game.

[Andreas]

That's actually where I heard about this book, and then bought it!

[Georgea76]

Yeah, same as above: saw the video while looking at videos about minecraft, seemed really similar to the thing I was after, bought the book: best buy ever :). 30 bucks well spent.

[mackncheesiest]

I also just so happened to see that video and buy the book as a result. You've got to love how the internet allows you to stumble upon the best things at the strangest times (seriously, I saw a gaming news story about someone building a "Working 16-bit computer" inside minecraft, I watched the video, and it led me to this book). By the way, there's also videos of the CPU and Program Counter now. If you're interested in seeing those too, they're below.

CPU Demonstration

Program Counter

[ohmganesha]

I just finished my HACK computer in Minecraft as well. Two weeks ago I didn't know much about CPU's at all, now I can build one thanks to this site :) Here is the forum thread that has all my process of building it, video, save file, diagrams and any future updates. http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/526445-my-alucpucomputer-progress-thread-video-and-worldsave/

I added bi-directional bit-shifting, XOR and RNG functions to the ALU, by using the 2 free bits and a small decoder. I also reordered the instruction-set a little for minecraft specific reasons. Other than that it is the same CPU as described here.

This has been a great resource, thanks!