Development diary for the noVa64 computer — a 16-bit laptop built around the 65816, designed and built in the open. The synthesis document holds the plan; this is the log of getting there.
ENTRIES
| 2026 | ||
| GE | We need an emulator | general · Sep 18, 2026 |
| At some point, probably way earlier than I think, we will need a noVa64 Emulator. There is going to be an unbelievable amount of work on the software side of the noVa64 and ther... | ||
| GE | Three releases in ten days | general · Sep 10, 2026 |
| Ten days ago I published the synthesis document as v0.2 and said the next phase was to go through it sheet by sheet and decide what survives contact with reality. Since then the... | ||
| GE | A new beginning | general · Aug 31, 2026 |
| It’s been almost 4 years since I had this idea, and I’d barely thought about it since — until recently. Some (good) changes in my life took my lab away from me, and I haven’t be... | ||
| GE | Today I did something stupid | general · Aug 23, 2026 |
| Well, maybe not stupid. Let’s call it reckless. | ||
| 2022 | ||
| GE | So.. what’s the plan? | general · Dec 20, 2022 |
| Awesome, another very legit question! So far, there’s none, I’m afraid. I’m only gathering some random thoughts for now. The feature creep madness phase seems to be wearing off,... | ||
| AR | Some random thoughts on the noVa architecture | architecture · Dec 16, 2022 |
| I’ve stumbled upon a little FPGA, with embedded DRAM. The GOWIN GW1NR-LV4 has 64Mbits (8MB) of DRAM, and offers an integrated SDRAM controller. The price is around $16. I can al... | ||
| GE | How did we get here? | general · Dec 15, 2022 |
| And also, who am I? And what was I thinking? I suppose those are very valid questions. I’m a child of the ’80s. I grew up with, among many other things, an 8-bit computer. I enj... | ||