“Hello, world” from scratch on a 6502 — Part 1
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN repeatedly recommends it as the best hands-on way to understand how a CPU and a computer work from first principles.
What it is
Ben Eater starts a series building a working computer on breadboards around the 6502 microprocessor. In this first part he gets a 'hello world' running from scratch.
Recommended by 11 HN commenters across 11 different months, 2019 to 2026.
What Hacker News said
Strong rec showerst · 2019-10 · on “The Story of the Team Behind the 6502”
The (awesome) youtube electronics teacher Ben Eater has just started a series of videos building a 6502 based computer on a breadboard, and he sells kits. I just got my kit, so I'm really looking forward to the rest of the videos. He also offers the schematics for those wanting to jump ahead. [this video] [LINK]
Strong rec cadence- · 2019-12 · on “Chuck Peddle Dies at 82; His $25 Chip Helped Start the PC Age”
Here is an amazing video on how to build a computer based on 6502 on a breadboard, and program it in binary to get a Hello World equivalent. I highly recommend it: [this video]
Strong rec halotrope · 2020-04 · on “Clocking a 6502 simulator to 15GHz”
After stumbling on Ben Eaters “Hello world from scratch” [1] I went out and bought the cpu some parts and breadboards. The chip is only a few dollars. It is highly recommended if you want to dive down into computers and digital logic on first principles. Also great fun to get a break from all the screens and layers upon layers of software that I have to deal with daily. 1. [this video]
Strong rec halotrope · 2020-06 · on “Ask HN: What are some good resources to learn how electricity works?”
I found the „Hello world from scratch“[1] series from Ben Eater incredibly helpful in connecting the dots between electricity and modern computers. Strictly speaking it is about electronics, still it is superbly presented and incredibly enlightening when coming from „normal“ software engineering perspective of things. What actually got me there was the book „Code“ by Charles Petzold[2] which traces the development from early circuitry like light bulbs and telegraph wires to modern digital logic. I found that after being introduced to these concepts, learning about the fundamental physics was much more accessible since it was framed in the context of contemporary application. 1: [this video] 2: [L
Strong rec throwaway47292 · 2021-11 · on “Ask HN: Skill you want to learn in 2022?”
i would suggest to follow Ben Eater's 8 bit computer [this video] and would strongly recommend to build it (you can see the parts on his website [LINK] or buy the whole kit)
Strong rec Night_Thastus · 2022-05 · on “Easy 6502”
For anyone interested in the 6502, assembly and just in general how things like loops, conditional branches, hardware communication, etc all work, I HIGHLY recommend Ben Eater's videos on the subject: [this video] They are incredibly fascinating!
Recommends fapjacks · 2019-09 · on “SNES Cartridges and Enhancement Chips”
If anyone is interested in learning a little more about the 6502, Ben Eater recently did a video about it [0]. Also just in general if you hadn't heard of his channel and are reading this comment, you'll definitely enjoy what he does. [0] [this video]
Recommends jedimastert · 2019-12 · on “Build an 8-bit computer from scratch”
For anyone itching for more Ben Eater, he's currently working on a series where he takes a 6502-type processor and turns it into a usable computer. Here's the first video: [this video]