Nick
Status
Currently shipping through Lectronz and Tindie You can follow more project updates on About Page.
Video updates and other related videos available on YouTube.
Documentation
The main website is touchmetal.org. The instruction manual is available as a free download.
Why did I make it?
Computer Science is increasingly detached from the low-level aspects of the underlying CPU/memory system. With vibe-coding, this detachment is absolute: you don't even need to understand much about the higher-level aspects of the system. This board is an attempt to help people re-connect with those lower-level aspects. With the Touch Metal board, you examine and modify memory one byte at a time, by typing in addresses and data in octal (using 8 push buttons). After entering your code, you can single-step the CPU, examine registers and memory, and really see what the CPU is doing as it executes your code.
I'm hoping this will be a fun, entertaining and educational toy for people who want to know more about how computers work: a chance to "touch metal."
What makes it special?
This is a custom CPU architecture, designed for education. It has a simple instruction set; relatively few addressing modes (it favors direct memory access, though it also has internal registers and supports memory-indirect addressing); and the coding of instructions in machine code is very clean, breaking on octal-digit boundaries, which makes it feasible to assemble code in your head (especially with the handy assembly-to-machine code map on the back).
Other features:
- It's powered by a USB-C cable (included with every board!)
- It fits in your hand.
- Though the default display has a very small font, you can cycle through larger display modes that are easier to read.
- It allows you to store 4 programs in non-volatile memory, so you can re-run your favorite programs without having to toggle them in each time.
- The website has various resources available, including an assembler (when you want a break from assembling by hand!), as well as an emulated version (if you suddenly get the urge to do some machine-code programming but forgot your board at home).
- The hardware and software are open-source (CC-BY-SA)
AI Notice
No AI (including auto-correct, grammar suggesting software, AI-assisted search, vibe-coding, AI overviews, etc.) was used in the creation of any aspect of the Touch Metal project. All bugs, mistakes, typos, oversights or "hallucinations" are entirely my own! https://real-i.org
chmod775
hedley
Nicola Cimmino
0xCAFEAFFE