Build kit

Character Generator

The first kit in the Hardware Basics series. We build read-only memory — a ROM — out of transistors and resistors: a character generator with 16 characters, 5 × 7. Set the code on the switches and a character lights on the screen. A standalone kit that starts from the transistor: our own gates, a decoder, the matrix and your own character. 455 transistors and 35 resistors.

Start for freeBuy · 10 €

The introduction and lessons 0–1 are free; the rest opens after purchase.

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What is inside

  1. Introduction
  2. History: memory you cannot erase
  3. Lesson 1. ROM point: a transistor is a bit
  4. Lesson 2. Decoder: the code selects a row
  5. Lesson 3. Character generator: characters 0–7
  6. Lesson 4. Characters 8–F: a file with the whole matrix
  7. Lesson 5. Your own character
  8. Summary
  9. All the parts
  10. Instructions in pictures