In addition to pursuing programming professionally I worked with computers at home as a hobby. My first computer was a Commodore Pet, followed by a Vic-20 and several C-64s. I also built and programmed a Cosmac Elf which I gave to an amateur radio club to use as a repeater controller.
Is the computer hobby dead? Does anyone tinker with Elfs, Kims or the S100 bus?
I'm really excited about the Elf 2000. Would anyone read a blog about this machine? Has anyone else here built an Elf?
Comments
Software - Windows, MAC, Linux, Web/Internet programming, build your own OS, build your own programming language; program a major platform in assembly language
Microcontrollers - Microchip PIC, Atmel AVR, various ARM processors, others; with microcontrollers, you can explore a number of hardware topics that modern workhorse OS's (such as Windows, MAC, and Linux) get in the way of
Programmable logic - hardware: FPGA, CPLD; software: Verilog, VHDL; build your own CPU; resurrect old CPU's, gaming platforms, microprocessor development kits; do things with FPGA or CPLD that would normally be done with microcontrollers
Hardware interfacing - build your own devices (typically with microcontrollers) to communicate with a gaming platform or cellphone
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Unless all you're interested in is software on current major platforms (or old dead ones), you will need to do some electronic design work.
Oh, and the Arduino is becoming popular also.
Navic