| Workbook - Coding / Executing Processor on Paper: TPS / MyCo - Code / Execute Code Without Hardware - Even on Paper Only Contributor(s): Pintaske, Juergen (Author) |
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ISBN: ISBN-13: 9798697233009 Publisher: Independently Published OUR PRICE: $12.49 Product Type: Paperback Published: November 2020 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Computers | Computer Engineering |
| Physical Information: 0.47" H x 6" W x 9" (0.67 lbs) 222 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: 1 - Introduction to this Book of Examples and Explanations - and "Programming without Hardware"Welcome to "Programming Without Hardware".There are two books that have been published already in English in addition to all the material that Burkhard Kainka had generated about this project TPS / MyCo. At the end of the second book I had added a small chapter showing a little example how the processor works using a simple approach - making coffee.But to execute this and see the code working, you still needed a processor system, or at least use the simulator.This lead to the idea: Could this work completely without hardware and do it all on paper? So I got started.Is such an approach useful to learn easily? As it is on paper and not much to translate, anybody in the world can give it a go: children, parents grandparents - no electronics required. An, as a next step you can always download the Simulator to execute the programs on a PC. Or even use some of the hardware implementations. And as there is not too much text in this book, it should work in many languages.For schools this might be helpful, if just one MyCo / TPS Kit exists, but all pupils should be able to do the same on paper. And at home.I thought it is a good execise to work through this paper-option. As well this would force me to add to the descriptions in the erlier books, so people can more easily replicate what happens and do a complete walkthrough, helping to understand how coding works.At the top of each example there are these 2 lines showing the function blocks and the instructions of the processor, and in yellow highlighted which of them are used in the current example, shown here for Example 1: 0n 1n 2n 3n 4n 5n 6n 7n 8n 9n An Bn Cn Dn En Fn S1 S2 IN AN1 AN2 RA RB RC RD OUT PWM DLY SKP ALU PGE PCThe first line showing which instructions there are.The second line -shows all of the processsor blocks that we have.In each example we will highlight in yellow the function blocks and the instructions used in the related example.All of this to make it easier to understand how the processor executes.The pages are set up in a way that each example has most of the information required on the same 2 pages. This leads to quite a bit of duplication - but this is intentional - have it all in view while stepping through the examples.In school you can actually take this a step fursther: use this booklet and perform the examples as a play and involve as many children as the different function blocks used in the example: And the child holding a page with the current contents of the relevant function block.There are a few functions that are difficult to do on paper, but there are solutions: Input Switches: use Push Pins, coins or paper clips to show statusAnalog Input: stack coins on top of each other - 0 to 15Output LEDs: same as Inputs, use coins again to show LED on/offAnalog Output: push pins or a stack of coins againDelay Function: processor stops for a certain time, speak out 1 to nSoundsing a sound for the specified lengthOr find any other solution that fits the purpose and works best for you.You might find better solutions.You can feed them back and if you agree we will try to include them in a future updated version.In such a book typos are unfortunately easily possible. We did our best, but cannot take any responsibility.Please send feedback and corrections to epldfpga@aol.comWe hope you enjoy the bookOctober 2020My special thanks go to Burkhard Kainka, who had the idea of TPS/MyCo. Much can be seen on his website.Franzis Verlag made the kit available - in German their market. I am thankful for the ok to translate the first booklet into English.And to Michael Kalus, who took up my challange to re-write the complete TPS / MyCo functionality in Forth, adding the option to control it via the serial interface.Ralf Lieb did it in C. And did the PCB layout. |