Kestrel Computer Project

https://kestrelcomputer.github.io/kestrel/

by ycmbntrthrwaway • 10 years ago

176 42 10 years ago

kestrelcomputer.github.io

kazinator2• 10 years ago

Spelled "kestral" in Nethack. :)

fjarlq2• 10 years ago

No, it's spelled "kestrel" in NetHack.

https://github.com/NetHack/NetHack/blob/NetHack-3.6.0/dat/bo...

kazinator2• 10 years ago

I mis-remembered. It's a monster from Rogue! I could swear I played some Rogue variant very long ago where it was spelled with an "a". Quick research shows that Rogue had it as "kestrel" since forever, though. These "hallucinatory monsters" ("bogusmon") seem like a new addition to Nethack.

tux1968• 10 years ago

The Kestrel-4 sounds great. It's a shame it was canceled April 2nd.

ZenoArrow7• 10 years ago

Where does it say that? I don't see any blog posts about the cancellation of Kestrel-4.

ZenoArrow7• 10 years ago

RE: The post above, I made a mistake, this version of the Kestrel-4 was an April Fool's joke.

gaze3• 10 years ago

They best not be suggesting that they run a RISC-V in the fpga.

cesarbs2• 10 years ago

It's the fifth bullet point in the list at the top of the page.

gaze3• 10 years ago

Either they buy a risc-v chip someone taped out or they synthesize one in the FPGA. The latter will be competitive with 10-20 year old technology.

striking2• 10 years ago

Perhaps the goal is to eventually implement an ASIC version.

gaze3• 10 years ago

Tapeouts are many, many millions for something that will compete with anything in even your phone

polskibus• 10 years ago

Isn't kestrel the name of the new asp.net server?

cesarbs2• 10 years ago

Yep.

slavik81• 10 years ago

A kestrel is a type of bird. A falcon. There's lots of projects and products named after it.

aldanor• 10 years ago

It's a name of the human ship in FTL :)

tomcam• 10 years ago

It's based on Oberon! Woo hoo!

kc5tja7• 10 years ago

I tried to port Oberon, but was not yet successful in getting the compiler fully debugged. I also need to finish the system image linker so I can generate bootable images. For this reason, I pushed ahead with putting Forth in firmware.

However, I do intend on completing Oberon at some point (or trying to solicit help in that area; porting OSes is most definitely NOT my strong suit). Instead of putting in ROM, though, it'll be bootable off of SD card.

codezero• 10 years ago

The link to the Nexys2 doesn't result in any products, is that still available?

kc5tja7• 10 years ago

No, it went out of stock after I'd put the site up. I'll remove the link (or find an alternative to something that describes what the Nexys-2 is) when I go to update docs.

I have not selected a replacement board yet (since my Nexys-2 still works fine, I intend on continuing to use it for the time being). If, after I post a complete set of Verilog sources, someone wants to try porting to the hardware of their choice, I'll be happy to include relevant links on the site. (Or until I change boards myself, whichever comes first.)

danbruc• 10 years ago

This project seems to be in a superposition of enormously ambitious project, light-years away from reaching the goal and elaborated joke. Does that sound about right? I really have a hard time telling from looking at the repository and I never heard of it before.

ZenoArrow7• 10 years ago

Depends on what you mean. If you're looking for a computer that can replace your daily driver, then yes it's years away from that. However, if you're looking for a new platform to explore and tinker with without needing FPGA knowledge, then it's close to that already.

nickpsecurity4• 10 years ago

It's an interesting exploration. I at least got two things out of this:

1. That the two-pass assembler design from 6502 was only 2KB. Tricks from software like that tend to come in handy later on embedded systems.

2. His links on stepwise refinement of the Forth interpreter give a nice illustration of the concept. I rarely see an example that doesn't involve formal methods that turn most away or some useless objective.

So, mostly him having fun in his spare time. Yet, at least two reasons to keep a link to the project. Also, he ended up using the approach I keep suggesting here: port the Oberon System because it's simple and has plenty of features. He's doing that on Kesterel 3.

nickpsecurity4• 10 years ago

On an unrelated note, Kestrel Institute has been doing high assurance systems synthesized from specifications for a long time:

http://www.kestrel.edu/home/projects/

Maybe people will find that Kestrel more interesting. :)

dreamcompiler2• 10 years ago

That was my first thought: "Is Cordell Green building a computer? Cool!"

nickpsecurity4• 10 years ago

"Using Specware, we've specified and synthesized an entire computer. We even have flow charts of the hand movements of assdmbly line sorkers. The entire process, from design to manufacturing, should be correct by construction. As will be the computer."

He then added, "That's assuming the following assumptions are true. There's about 500 of them do bear with me on this PowerPoint..."

bickfordb• 10 years ago

Another Kestrel: https://kestrel.soe.ucsc.edu/

freekh2• 10 years ago

Just yesterday I was dreaming about doing something very similar! I wonder how he have had time to get so far - it is extremely impressive!

freekh2• 10 years ago

Aha, I didn't understand that the kestrel 4 was an April fools joke? Blazemonger support? :) I was seriously dreaming about doing something similar but kestrel 3 is real afaics :)

kc5tja7• 10 years ago

Kestrel-3 is software emulation only at this point. However, after making some last minute touches to the system firmware (a dialect of eForth for both simplicity and hackability), I will switch over to working on Verilog. I already have video, keyboard, and GPIO cores written, so I only need to focus on the CPU.

Kestrel Computer Project

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