Build kit

74-Series Chips

A kit in the Hardware Basics series. This is how computers of the 1970s were built — the Apple I, arcade machines, terminals: not from separate gates but from catalogue chips. You build twelve real 74-series chips from transistors — 74HC00, 02, 04, 08, 32, 86, 74HC74, 74HC390, 74HC138, 74HC595, 74HC244 and 74HC245 — with the same pin names as in the datasheet, and put each one straight into a device: an alarm, a divider, a stopwatch, a running light, 8 lamps over three wires, a shared bus. The finale is an electronic dice built from the kit chips. A standalone kit. 1,448 transistors.

Start

This kit is free: all lessons are open, no sign-up needed.

74HC0074HC7474HC595
74HC00 · 74HC74 · 74HC595

12 CHIPS · 1,448 TRANSISTORS

What is inside

  1. Introduction
  2. History: a computer from the catalogue
  3. Lesson 0. Gates from transistors: for those who start from scratch
  4. Lesson 1. Logic in packages: 74HC00, 02, 04, 08, 32
  5. Lesson 2. Flip-flops in a package: 74HC74 and a frequency divider
  6. Lesson 3. A counter in a package: 74HC390 and a stopwatch
  7. Lesson 4. A decoder in a package: 74HC138 and a running light
  8. Lesson 5. A shift register: 74HC595 and 8 lamps over three wires
  9. Lesson 6. Bus buffers: 74HC244 and 74HC245
  10. Lesson 7. An electronic dice
  11. Summary
  12. All the parts
  13. Instructions in pictures