Random Access Memory, 2 half-byte registers

Here's another computer component I've made in my usual colorful style. I can write to and read from and two separate registers of memory using the same set of inputs and outputs.

Building just a single register of memory is fairly straightforward, but the difficulty comes when you want to access different registers separately. This can present you with a nightmarish wiring situation as you try to selectively disable/enable the inputs and outputs for each memory bank. What I've done here is tightly integrate the wiring and the individual input/output controls into a (relatively) compact unit. Even so, it still takes a volume of 128 blocks for every bit you wish to store.

I plan eventually for my computer to have 16 8-bit registers, which will likely dwarf the rest of the system. It will probably be 2 8-register lines next to each other with total dimensions of around 40x70.

Category:

Gaming

Tags:

• minecraft
• redstone
• computer
• memory
• RAM
• register
• bit
• electronics
• input
• output
• read
• write

[HansLemurson]

I've been meaning to make a RAM tutorial for a long time, but I keep getting distracted by other projects and continually improving and upgrading the design.

A few weeks after making this video, I created some RAM that was half the size you see here, and then I made "Minecraft in Minecraft" out of that.

Currently I'm working on a computer which will use RAM that's again half the size of what I used in my last project.

I'll have a RAM tutorial out eventually though.

[TheDaskrokodil]

@HansLemurson Hey Hans ur videos r very cool but can u upload some new ones ?

[HansLemurson]

@TheDaskrokodil

I've actually been involved on a big project which I've been keeping as a surprise, which is why I haven't made any videos recently. I'm only good at doing one thing at a time.

Within a week though (I'm 95% complete), I'll have a video presentation about the highly specialized computer-system that I've been working on.

[Marekkpie]

I'd say this is pretty small. I've got something similar, albeit many more bytes, but even if I were to shrink it down to your size, I probably wouldn't have made it as small.

[HansLemurson]

@Marekkpie I've actually further refined this design into cells that have only a 2x4 footprint, and so will be twice as compact as the ones shown here. They ended up being 50% taller, but added height doesn't cost you anything.

I should really do another video soon...

[HansLemurson]

Powering minecarts is really pretty straightforward and would at most just represent an "Output" of a device. With the removal of the "cart glitch", minecarts no longer have any interesting relationships to each other that would be useful for making a computing system.

I'm not dissing minecarts or saying that they're not cool, I'm just saying that I'm interested in making a computer, and since minecarts can't help with that, they have little appeal to me.

[HansLemurson]

@cxgamer

Heh, yeah I know half a byte is called a "Nibble", but when thinking of what to title the video, I thought that "nibble" sounded a little bit silly. Half-byte is the same number of syllables and everybody already knows what a byte is, so I decided to go with "Half-Byte" rather than "Nibble".

[jamesrassool22]

hey have you ever thought about providing a download or tutorial?

because that would be very useful to me and probably other people too so thanks if u can :)

[Cool12309FromRoblox]

PLEASE make a tutorial on how to make a bit, it is VERY hard to find any useful ones (I have yet to find one that shows you how to build the bit or even what a bit is)

[fu11fu]

Would it be possible for you to make a tutorial, or upload the map?

[PATAR144]

BUT CAN IT RUN CRYSIS?

[tucense]

Gah I wish you could see my old designs.. I spent a long time on it and made 4 registers with 8 bits of memory. It works exactly the same and is very fast and compact.

[PenguinEmp]

I admire your enthusiasm.

[TheDaskrokodil]

@HansLemurson I can't wait for it :D