Lab and tools

The instruments: the die lit by what it is doing, the tracer, the schematic, the Halfwave Lab. One chip, many views.

The instruments

Every view is the same chip, lit by what it is doing. Grouped the way the explorer groups them; every one opens with the transport on the floor.

Start here

Primerthe mental model, corrected one step at a time
Explorerthe die itself, lit by what it is doing
Programsseven programs, assembled in the page
Halfshotthe chosen program, one frame per half-cycle

The chip, drawn

Explodedthree mask layers and twelve blocks, pulled apart
Blocksone functional block at a time, and what crosses its edge
Schematic1160 gates recognised from the switch network
Blueprintthe datapath as a block diagram, derived
Chip mapthe whole chip as one schematic, a box per derived container

Block diagram

The published figurethe datasheet diagram as a dataset, resolved against the die
The graphevery node at its own place on the die, and every edge
The pinoutforty pins, with each direction measured rather than copied

One instruction at a time

Labfour instructions, opcode to register
Traceany of the 256 opcodes, half-cycle by half-cycle
Tracerthe whole circuit lit beside the code, half-cycle by half-cycle

Measured tables

Decodeall 122 PLA terms, and what fires each
Timingevery instruction, timed sync to sync

The engine, wide

Swarmthousands of transistor-level chips on your own GPU

The Halfwave Lab

A 6502, half a clock phase at a time. The research bench, and it stays one.