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The Motorola 68000 Homebrew Computer Project

History of the Project

I've always wanted to build my own computer system from "scratch", at least to the level of using ICs & the circuit design. I'm not looking to wire wrap individual transistors here lol. I've previously built a Z80-based system, but since I'm mainly a C/C++ programmer I quickly reached the limitations of a 64k address space.

So, this time around I'm designing a 32-bit system with a 24-bit (16MB) address bus. I'll be publishing schematics and PCB information as the design progresses and documenting as much as possible here on this wiki. I will be using "human-friendly" chips and sockets as much as possible with 0.100" (2.54mm) pin spacing, I want this design to be able to be reproduced and built by real people and not just soldering experts and machines.

Hardware

* Note: throughout this site if I use MB/KB/etc. I mean Megabyte/Kilobyte/etc. I will use Mbit/Kbit for Megabits/Kilobits.

CPU - Motorola 68000
ROM - 1MB
RAM - 12MB
Memory Map
Other potential ICs

Software

Bootloader
Operating System/Kernel
Updater

Potential Toolchains

GCC 4.4.5 [1] + Binutils 2.21 [2]

Licensing

Everything (information, schematics, designs, etc.) on this site is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License version 3.0 unless otherwise noted. More information on this license can be found here: [3].

Other Sources

Documentation & Tutorials

Microprocessor College Lectures: These are good starting point for those new to 68000 hardware design, busses, etc. The good stuff starts around lesson 7 or 8.

Similar Projects

N8VEM: Homebrew Computer Project: Open source design using a Z80 CPU and Eurocard backplane for expansion. Also includes M68K CPU boards and S-100 bus versions.