My COSMAC ELF

A quick demo of the COSMAC ELF I built in 2013-2014. It includes 32K RAM, 32K ROM, an expansion board, and bit-banged serial. In the video I demonstrate toggle switch programming and the built-in Elf 2k monitor, with special emphasis on Forth. Honestly I think it would be wiser and easier to emulate this with an Arduino (UNO1802/Kim Uno) or a handheld device. In the future I may go through Tom Pittman's Short Course in Programming with such an emulator.

[joefarr]

Whilst you "could" do this with software emulation, and possibly if this was going to be used by civilians then that may have been the way to go, but there is nothing more thrilling than assembling your own physical machine, playing with it, maintaining it, expanding it. Anybody these days can build a virtual gizmo, but a physical implementation requires skill and patience. And when you're done with it, you can put it in a display box and show it off to people. Well done.

[KDNJR]

An ELF ! Those were definitely advertised my dad’s old 73 Amateur Radio Magazine collection .

[beforth]

Nice project, so much fun 👍. BTW try:
' HELLO FORGET
the quote ( ' ) pushes the execution token of the next word you type on the stack, maybe that's what forget needs.

[saundby]

Now that I've had a chance to watch the video, I can say with certainty that you need to replace those toggle switches with high quality name brand switches with gold contacts. The cheap switches on the market have got crap metals on the contacts, and they're unreliable for low current CMOS input switches. Spring the $16 to $20 loose for 11 good toggle switches and a good momentary and you'll find using your Elf is a whole new experience.

[KDNJR]

Maybe this isn’t too far off topic, but isn’t there software for emulating Arduino on the Pc ? Would make the code -> compile -> correct -> download -> execute -> that’s not quite what I want cycle go a little faster .

[MrCiernioo]

Hi! Sorry to bother you, but do you have, by any chance the ELF 2K firmware ? Link on their site is broken, and I need it for my prototype.