CPU executing Basic directly

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“TinyBasic interpreter Copyright 1976 Itty Bitty Computers, used by permission.”

Hi Basic fans,

I know it sounds a bit crazy, but that’s what it is… I created a CISC micro-coded CPU in FPGA which executes Basic interpreter directly. It is running a TBIL from 1976 (Tiny Basic Intermediate Language) as its machine code. The Basic is limited, but the speed is pretty impressive :slight_smile: More details here: CPU running Basic | Hackaday.io

Hope you find it interesting and maybe inspire others for similar implementations or modifications. You will find links to all source code and project logs and few demo test run videos on YouTube on my hackaday page. All feedback welcome!

Thanks,
Z.

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Nice! I like the instrumentation/tracing you have. Here’s a direct link to your 1000 primes video:

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Thanks! One has no idea what is going on in the FPGA without some instrumentation. Esp for very custom projects like this it makes sense to have as many peeks into the system as possible. When I start building it, I start with simple 7-seg displays and some MUXs to see as many registers as possible as I single step clocks.

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