During the beta-testing phase of the Universal Chip Analyzer (UCA), some testers noticed that certain CPUs failed on the UCA while appearing to work on more basic testing devices. To determine whether this discrepancy was due to a flaw in the UCA, I purchased a couple of these simpler testers for co| X86.FR | Doc TB's R&D Lab
Designing a stable, adjustable and fail-safe power supply for the Universal Chip Analyzer has been one of the most challenging aspects of this project and I was quite reluctant to touch that part of the schematics. For years, the DC-DC power supply stage on the UCA Interface Board relied on Texas In| X86.FR | Doc TB's R&D Lab
The Universal Chip Analyzer (UCA) beta testing is entering its final phase! Thanks to the valuable feedback from talented professionals and passionate retro enthusiasts, two critical improvements were identified and addressed before the official release. The first improvement concerns the Interface| X86.FR | Doc TB's R&D Lab
The Universal Chip Analyzer made another step in its journey to the prehistoric age of CPUs. The Intel 8080, released in 1974, was already based on very old technologies and quite hard to interface with compared to its competitors (Zilog Z80 and Motorola 6800), but the Intel 8008 is even more archaic. Originally designed as … Continue reading "The UCA now supports Intel 8008"| X86.FR | Doc TB's R&D Lab
While developing the code for the UCA’s EEPROM Adapter, I came up with an idea to automatically match the contents of a newly read EEPROM to a database, allowing the user to check if the data is already known – like identifying a specific BIOS version, for instance. This would enable the UCA companion application … Continue reading "EPROMSDB.com – The Vintage ROMs collection"| X86.FR | Doc TB's R&D Lab
Preserving the content of ROM, EPROM, and EEPROM is crucial for maintaining and restoring vintage electronic devices like retro-computers. These memories hold critical software, firmware, or microcode to ensure device’s functionality. Over time, the data stored in these chips can degrade due to age or environmental factors like lightning condition or humidity, leading to the … Continue reading "The UCA now supports ROMs & (E)EPROMs"| X86.FR | Doc TB's R&D Lab
Released in September 1989 by Intel, the legendary 486 CPU enjoyed widespread popularity in numerous PCs for many years before being gradually replaced by the Pentium and its successors. This era profoundly influenced the entire CPU industry for decades. Up until then, only Intel designed x86 microa| X86.FR | Doc TB's R&D Lab
A benchmark feature was planned very early in the development process of the Universal Chip Analyzer. Given the vast differences in microarchitecture between a 486 and an 8080, two benchmarks are necessary: one to compare older 8-bit CPUs from various manufacturers with incompatible instruction sets| X86.FR | Doc TB's R&D Lab
If you’ve been following my blog since the inception of the Universal Chip Analyzer (UCA) journey, you might recall a post with the same title I published in mid-2021. At that time, I was excited to unveil the second version of the UCA, a project I had been dedicated to since 2017. Unfortunately, shortly after … Continue reading "Final Universal Chip Analyzer disclosed!"| X86.FR | Doc TB's R&D Lab
The Universal Chip Analyzer was not called the Universal CPU Analyzer for a reason: from the very beginning of the project back in 2017, I have in mind a tester for various ICs and not just CPUs. The 8087 was the first non-CPU that could be tested on the UCA, but a FPU is technically … Continue reading "UCA now able to test early DRAMs!"| X86.FR | Doc TB's R&D Lab