Category 68 Katy

A 68000-based homebrew computer designed for running Linux.

uClinux penguin logo

Banging my Head Against the Wall

Still working on the uClinux bring-up for my 68000 protoboard machine. Still not there. Why is this so hard? Yesterday the boot process was working up to the point where it tried to mount the root filesystem image. I finally…

uClinux boot log

Inching Forward

So close to a successful boot, yet so far away! I’m continuing to work on porting uClinux to my 68000 protoboard computer. Since my last post, I’ve added hardware to support timer and serial interrupts, and shrunk the linux boot…

First uClinux boot attempt

Baby Steps with uClinux

What you see above is my first attempt to boot a uClinux 2.0 kernel on the 68 Katy prototype hardware, the result of several days of work. It doesn’t look like much, but the fact that it even begins to…

uClinux penguin logo

Building uClinux for a 68000 Target

Compiling the Linux kernel is fun! uClinux is a version of regular desktop Linux that’s designed for low-end embedded hardware, especially CPU’s that lack a memory management unit and can’t support virtual memory. It looks like a good fit for…

BASIC running on the 68K breadboard computer

Breadboarding the 68K

My 68K breadboard computer is alive! It’s always a thrill when a pile of random chips does something recognizably computer-ish for the first time. Blinking some LEDs in sequence is great; running BASIC is super extra great. I’m excited. This…

Scope trace of a bouncing reset signal

Reset Debouncing Gives Me Ulcers

Who knew that getting a decent /RESET signal could be so difficult? I’ve been working on a scaled-down breadboard version of my 68000 system design. It mostly works so far, running a simple program that echoes serial port bytes. (More…

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