Wireless World Computer - PS8 - Computing & Engineering

The Wireless World computer is a design published in the UK magazine (of the same name) as a four part series in 1967.   It is a serial computer with just three stores and is designed to execute one instruction at a time. The original design required 450 odd germanium transistors as about as many diodes.  This contruction has switched to silicon as they are more generally available these days.

As discussed in the original articles, a sensible extension to the design is a program store.  I plan to produce an array of 8 x 20 slide switches where a program of up to 20 steps can be set-up.  Given the limitations of the original design, there are no 'test' instructions or jumps.  I hope to define a single 'Skip if Acc is -ve' and a jump instruction.  More to come on that as time progresses.

Alongside is the front page from the WW articles and a short video of the computer running.

Useful links: Scan of the original articles

000:    No op
001:    Add reg to acc
002:    Subtract reg from acc
011:    Multiply reg by store1
022:    Divide reg by store1
      
040:    Inhibit carry
004:    Reset carry
045:    Complement acc

111:    Copy reg to Store 1

112:    Copy reg to store 2

113:    Copy reg to store 3

      

121:    Copy acc to store 1

122:    Copy acc to store 2

123:    Copy acc to store 3

131:    Copy store 1 to counter

132:    Copy store 2 to counter

133:    Copy store 3 to counter

211:    Copy store 1 to reg

212:    Copy store 2 to reg

213:    Copy store 3 to reg

      

221:    Copy store 1 to acc

222:    Copy store 2 to acc

223:    Copy store 3 to acc

110:    Clear reg

120:    Clear acc

101:    Clear store 1

102:    Clear store 2

103:    Clear store 3

330:    Clear counter