Новини світу мікро- та наноелектроніки

Built a scientific calculator from scratch: custom PCB, custom FPGA CPU, hand-written machine code

Reddit:Electronics - Сбт, 05/16/2026 - 21:55
 custom PCB, custom FPGA CPU, hand-written machine code

I built a scientific calculator from scratch: custom PCB, custom FPGA firmware, and a CPU I designed myself in Verilog.

The physical build: a custom main board and keypad PCBs designed in EasyEDA and manufactured by JLCPCB, an Altera Cyclone II FPGA as the brain, an LCD display, battery with charging circuit, and two ROM-flashing connectors on the sides to update the firmware.

Under the hood it runs a nibble-oriented CPU I designed specifically for BCD arithmetic: the way decimal calculators should work internally. I then wrote ~4K of machine code implementing the full set of scientific functions: trig, logarithms, complex numbers, statistics, all verified to 14 significant digits against a dedicated test suite.

The full stack:

  • Custom CPU in Verilog: Harvard architecture, 12-bit ISA, 8 registers, hardware fault detection
  • Hand-written microcode assembler in Python
  • Verilator + Qt simulation framework for development and debugging
  • Custom PCB (EasyEDA / JLCPCB), battery, charging circuit, 3D printed case

The finished device is sitting on my desk.

Live WebAssembly demo (runs the actual Verilog + microcode in your browser): https://baltazarstudios.com/files/calculator-d/Calculator.html

Write-up: https://baltazarstudios.com

Source: https://github.com/gdevic/FPGA-Calculator

Hackaday: https://hackaday.com/2026/05/13/build-the-cpu-then-build-the-calculator/

Happy to answer questions about the PCB design, the FPGA setup, or anything else.

submitted by /u/gdevic
[link] [comments]

Weekly discussion, complaint, and rant thread

Reddit:Electronics - Сбт, 05/16/2026 - 18:00

Open to anything, including discussions, complaints, and rants.

Sub rules do not apply, so don't bother reporting incivility, off-topic, or spam.

Reddit-wide rules do apply.

To see the newest posts, sort the comments by "new" (instead of "best" or "top").

submitted by /u/AutoModerator
[link] [comments]

LM317T voltage regulator reference readings in diode mode (0.621V / 1.417V)

Reddit:Electronics - Сбт, 05/16/2026 - 01:43
LM317T voltage regulator reference readings in diode mode (0.621V / 1.417V)

Una vez que lo pegues, ya tienes todo listo. ¡Dale al botón de Post (Publicar) y habrás terminado el proceso! 🚀⚡

submitted by /u/ServorElectronica
[link] [comments]

Сторінки

Subscribe to Кафедра Електронної Інженерії підбірка - Новини світу мікро- та наноелектроніки