Probably the biggest reason is that it is so complex few have the resources
and time to do it. You can't simply do this on perf board, at least you
can't if you want to get anywhere near designed speed, and these types of
processors don't like running too slowly. Most motherboards out there are
simply point to point wired, this pin on the processor goes directly to the
north bridge, this pin goes directly to the south bridge, this pin goes
directly to the ISA slot. There simply isn't very much "fun" going on,
mostly everything is point to point. About the only "fun" area left is the
regulator on the board, that usually has a chunk of discrete components.

Aside from this is the fact that most package types used these days are NOT
hobbiest friendly, while you could hand solder a TSOP package I don't see
how you could solder a BGA package by hand, and AFAIK all currrent chipsets
are in BGA packaging.

TTYL

> -----Original Message-----
> From: pic microcontroller discussion list
> [mailto:PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU]On Behalf Of Tony Goetz
> Sent: Tuesday, April 09, 2002 00:29
> To: PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU
> Subject: [EE]: Scratchbuilt computer?
>
>
> Hey, I was talking to a friend earlier and we were wondering
> something. Has
> anyone built a PC from scratch? i.e. design and build a motherboard,
> incorporating a pentium class processor or similar? (Still probably using
> standard memory, IDE drives, cards, etc.) Okay, yes, I suppose
> IBM could fall
> into that category, as well as the geeks of the 80's that got us
> where we are
> today. But nowadays, has anyone taken a commercial processor and built a
> custom motherboard for their own PC? Reprogrammed a
> pentium/athlon/whatever?
> Seems like it would be a heck of a project, but quite a rewarding
> one! I did
> some searches on the web but, as expected, ran into little more
> than how to
> build your own computer using commercial motherboards.
>
> Just a bit curious. If nothing like this is out there - why don't
> someone get
> to work?? ;)
>
> -Tony
>
> --
> http://www.piclist.com hint: The PICList is archived three different
> ways.  See http://www.piclist.com/#archives for details.
>
>
>

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