Why vertical has more counter that the horizontal? Isn't the vertical contains less line than the horizontal? Edit: I don't know if this is the right answer but my guess is that one pixel contains rgb so there. So computer need to scan 3 times to display the correct pixel per row. The row he wants to display is 800 pixel, but divided by 4 is 200, match the hsync, and then times 3 (because it needs to scan the same horizontal line 3 times to display the correct r, g and b value), which is 600, match the vsync. Just as a guess. Or I'm just dumb and it's because there's 600 horizontal lines
@@michaelwerkov3438 lmao yup. I'm so glad I was actually trained in I.T The stuff they teach at the school I went to now is like elementary I feel bad for the lads.
I know very little about electronics, I have never built a circuit much more complex than a flashlight, yet I was able to follow and understand just about everything presented, I am incredibly impressed!
That's just awesome isn't it? :D I'm far from understanding all these microchips, bits and other electronic stuff and I prefer pure electric circuits, but this guy makes it so easy! I subed and I'm waiting for more :D
@@alanowa123 if you liked this, you would do well to read "But how do it know" it explains the main components of a computer in a way that is just as digestible and easy to understand as this video.
"I've got a bunch of crystal oscillators here, and of course, none of them match the frequency we want." Never have I heard a more relatable line spoken in a TH-cam video.
Clear and detailed explanations. And most of all : video starts : he goes STRAIGHT to the point : no jingles, rubissh intro talk or w/ever, just pure electronics. Thanks.
I'm thinking a frame buffer (just a block of memory -- probably SRAM -- that represents the pixels on your screen so you can manipulate it in software) and another chain of counters ANDed with the pixel-on line (the 200 horizontal counter). Though, I'm very interested in what he comes up with. Now, getting images into the buffer is a whole 'nother kettle of fish...
@@qwertykeyboard5901 If you want to just show a static image, then ROM is fine, but RAM makes more sense for quickly changing data like a computer's display data.
@@Grstearns Yep, you need a CPU to get images into the buffer, so Ben will have to build... oh, wait! He has already built an 8-bit computer! He'll probably have to expand the PC and put more RAM than the 16 bytes it has now, though...
As a software developer I always thought those hardware classes I took in school were dumb and annoying. little did I know it would allow me to watch this video and be absolutely fascinated by everything working together. I hope teachers are showing their students your videos because you explain so well and pace it fast enough to stay interesting but slow enough to be understandable. I think I may have found my new favorite TH-cam channel
This was exactly the kind of material covered in EE Logic Design courses. My school offered two levels (intro and advanced), but you needed Boolean math and EE core (DC and AC circuit analysis, and semiconductors 1 & 2) as pre-requisites. Everything in this video (except for some pin reduction techniques he used but didn't elaborate on) could easily have been an exam question or lab assignment. This video is really good at reducing really complicated stuff into an easily digested format.
This needs to be BIG! I'm a Electronics Engineering student,and your videos have taught me a lot about electronics(more than my course actually). I'm actually working to build the 8-bit computer as a project,and I'll put updates frequently.. Your videos are so great in learning electronics--the practical way.
@@wyvern2037 Something about how the video card that Ben made isn't nearly as powerful as NVIDIA cards. Then Luca wooshed him and he deleted his comment.
Three years ago this video was at my first exposure to display signal timing. This morning, I submitted an initial order for my prototype EPD controller that supports multiple simultaneous partial refreshes
@@andreisava4012 I mean I get it was meant to be a joke, I just felt the joke didn't work cuz it would be like saying "cpu sellers", and explained why.
"Ugh, I guess I'll check this out. it's gonna be boring or over my head." *14 minutes in* "I should look into doing electronics, this looks fun as heck"
If this is your first foray into the Ben Eaterverse, you have a lot of catching up to do! Enjoy! (I had to wait _months_ for some of his follow-up videos to come out! Rawr!)
@@kindlin yeah, I am looking at the video list and I absolutely want to try to recreate these projects just so I can understand logic circuits a bit better than I currently do. I just have to find plenty of breadboards and ICs >.>
I would check out a logic simulator. I can endorse Logisim as being easy enough to use that i've built a few simple computers with it, but there are others floating around that may work better
@@thomasteles697 well that entirely depends on what you mean by 'best'. if you're talking best in terms of raw power, you're dead wrong, but if we're talking about what's best for your soul then yeah obviously minecraft
I'm in the exact same spot. 40 minutes ago I'd never heard of this channel, and had zero expectation that I'd be able to follow any of this. Now I can't wait for the next one.
NicosoftNT It does affect it, because I used to sleep roughly 4 hours every day. I also don’t drink any dairy stuff or eat it so that also can affect my growth
That has got to be one of the most fascinating videos I've every watched, thanks. I'm only just starting out learning electronics but your explanation was so clear and well thought out I feel like I understood what was going on.
What's next? Is this guy going to make a gaming PC from nothing but chips and wires? 1 year later edit: I meant breadboard. I didn't really know the term
I find it amazing that someone takes time to beautifully explain these things with the most basic building blocks on a breadboard. I love your videos, inspired me to take a look in dad's old ic box and lo and behold he did this kind of stuff back in the old days! Thanks a lot!
Yeah, I'm curious too whether one could really damage a display with wrong timings these days, and whether what they say on osdev wiki about wrong video timings potentially frying your display holds any water :q
Alternatively it could be angry NVIDIA/AMD fans that think that actually the world's worst GPU is done by its competitor and is not the one on the video
I found your channel today. I took my computer hardware course in university back in 86. I am surprised that I still understand what you are doing here plus i can follow your explanation and the build up without pausing or rewinding. Interesting build. I think I am going to check all your videos.
@@professorfukyu744 ah, I forgot to mention my teacher was very into breadboards. Knew that because he shows off his creation to the class every once in a while.
I study in a college that would teach stuff just like this. It took the professor and the class an 8 hour lesson to figure out how to PWM control a PC fan. Teaching something like this would be super expensive, too specific to teach relevant stuff and too time-consuming for the entire course to be about anything else.
yeah, videos are quite capable of skipping past all the tedious stuff, and even leave out the prep work that came before hand. However, take this 30 minute video, and show it to the entire class... then ask questions about the video, and set the students to work on recreating what was in the video. 30 minute video, however much time it takes for students to build it themselves, boom lesson over.
Thanks you TH-cam algorithm for pointing me in this direction. I always wonder how electronics *really* work and this is a great tutorial. This should be shown in schools seriously. That kind of content just might have motivated me to stay in school and learn to do this.
With all due respect, I must say that I think this video is a work of art where the passion for electronics is well known... Once every so often I pay a visit to enjoy this masterpiece again. Thank you teacher for sharing your knowledge and passion.
Great explanation. I had to look up the 74ls161 datasheet. This chip has an asynchronous clear. That is what caused the 0.1 microsecond discrepancy on the pixel timing. The 74ls163 is drop in compatible and will solve this. It has synchronous clear.
I thought it wouldn't even work... I was worrying the whole video about it. I think he could also use flip-flops for that, or even an RC circuit with an Schmidt trigger inverter (74LS14, if I remember correctly), but that would have scared half the audience out! :D
Maybe not the world's highest definition video card, but definitely the world's most educational video card. Awesome job! I'm really enjoying the video!
TH-cam algorithms just wanted to humiliate me and my finance degree. Great video, I can't believe I watched all 32 minutes without knowing what a "bit" is.
My geek mind was just blown! I'm on the software side of the universe and although I understand logic gates, I wouldn't have known how to build it from actual components. As Ben was building it, all the pieces fell in place in my mind. For example, once the counters were built, I thought: "Now we need a comparator." I felt dumb when I realized that the comparator was just logical ANDs with the input signals inverted for the zero bits. I love understanding how stuff works! Thank you for lighting up in what was still a dark corner for me!
@@KiLLUMiNATii to master any art one must always begin with the art of imitation. This is the way all knowledge is gained and feelings conveyed, from our first steps to our last breaths.
When you completed the 8-bit CPU project, I was wondering what could be the next big one for you. And you come with this video card project. You are amazing Ben. Can't wait for the next video.
@@Lapantouflemagic0 if you just found this channel, then you can open his videos and binge watch them all to keep you busy until Ben puts out his next part.
There's something really relaxing about watching your video. I have no idea how to do this myself but the way you explain it just makes sense and I can follow along quite well. Thank you, Ben! This is very interesting to watch.
This is so awesome. I was just trying to figure out how VGA worked, looking up schematics, watching other (not as well laid out videos). And, I actually wanted to rewatch something about your 8-bit computer. I looked up your channel and found you had just posted this minutes ago. Perfect! I'm looking forward to the follow up videos. Thanks!
I think it's incredible that I can watch this with just the knowledge of how binary works and a logic class I took 10 years ago and come out understanding everything except how the specific wiring works. You're an excellent teacher
Man, I don't think I've ever been more excited for an upcoming video! I want to see some RGB values! I do GPGPU computing for work, so this is kinda relevant.
@@politesociety I have a digital storage type oscilloscope project designed to run on a Altera Cyclone development board. Links are not available right now, but if you are interested, I can upload that on GitHub
I appreciate your hard work and amount of time you invest to make this video. and as a FPGA engineer i have been working on PAL standard and camara inputs. So I recommend this video for one who try to understand basics of video signal.
@@SimonBauer7 Making a soundcard is anything but easy. You don't just need an amp, you also need some memory buffer that can be written to and read from at the same time and a DAC that is capable of holding a steady clock rate when producing signals. The amp is only the last stage of a soundcard (and, strictly speaking, it isn't even needed to qualify as a sound card, as you can also just use an external amp, we only integrate amps in sound cards for convenience sake). It's easier than making a video card, but not easy by any means.
@@gayusschwulius8490 The components required would completely depend on the rest of the computer ofc. If you used a modern CPU you'd have access to DMA and wouldn't need a memory buffer. Building a low quality soundcard is actually easy, more so than making the video card in this clip, but on the other hand, this video card isn't difficult, it's just tedious when you manually forge timers like this. Using more modern hardware you could simply use a fast enough microcontroller or FPGA and do almost all of it entirely by code and 1 single chip with a power supply. For a soundcard you could use a micro or FPGA with either an internal or external DAC simply using a decent crystal oscillator and prescalers. The sound card wouldn't need nearly as high of a frequency either. You could run it at something like 44KHz and just output a sample every tick in both directions. The key would be to find a DAC that is at least 16 bits
@@NETBotic Good news is that it came from nothing apparently, so we still have a chance to make some more. Just need to get a hold of some nothing and we're on the right track i think.
I pre-measure mine, taking into account the bend and the amount I'm going to strip off, then I bend them with a needle-nose pliers. I always cut a little extra and trim off what I don't need.
Thank you for continuing this. You are filling a massive hole in our society: information on the powerful and useful devices which are sadly controlling our lives and the balance of power ever more. Education is the first step towards renewed progress. I find that most of the teaching material on computer science is poorly written, by people who are used to writing manuals for colleagues rather than text books for newbies. The fact that you produce (free!) videos and not just text and images makes it even better, ready for the 21st century. I cannot put into words how much I value and appreciate what you're doing, and how highly I rate your contribution to the world. Thank you.
Read your comment and I wholeheartly agree. Took Electronics on High School. Decided to go for Mechanical Engineering. I just stumbled upon this video and it can be followed.
I just came to this video because of the fun thumbnail thinking I will get some nice crafting or something and here I received a full-blown university lesson.
Brilliant! Vertical stripes, driven by higher bits buffered and voltage divided... 8 different color variations? More colors filling in going from left to right.
Hadn't thought of that. I figured you could just tie one or more of the RGB lines high (with suitable level conversion - though I assume the sync lines are at the same voltage level anyway) I actually thought the easiest thing to do with a design like this would be to wire some suitable pots to the R G B inputs, so you could arbitrarily change the colour of the whole display. The only thing I'm uncertain about is whether you actually have to cut the signal when outside the active display period. If not, you can literally just tie the inputs to an arbitrary voltage level (within the safe range of what VGA expects), otherwise you'd have to sync it with the timing counters somehow.
well, thats because we arent watching in real time as he makes this, he made this all, taking hundreds of hours, ahead of time, then he made every wire perfect, had all the pins and wires mapped out where they go, and just followed along with his notes when he shot the video. Everything looks great if you do all the work beforehand. its the julia childs method!
1. Make them really messy and get them working. 2. Rewire them with nicely shaped and bent wires. 3. Dissemble (but keep notes of what they looked like) 4. Reassemble on camera using pile of nicely pre-formed wires. Simples!
Hi Ben! I'm a high school student, going into my senior year this September. I took a computer engineering class back in grade 10, and struggled to find the motivation to complete my work and I lacked an overall interest in the subject. I recently found your channel from LiveOverflow, and your videos have personally sparked an interest into the world of computer engineering again. You take interesting topics, and explain them in such a way that even your most novice viewers can enjoy and understand. Thank you so much for the amazing content, and please keep it up!
as everyone else previously mentioned - absolutely stellar explanation, and good video - but this is the first video i've ever seen of you, and you had that cliffhanger at the end of the video, so i'll hate you for forcing me to sub :p
I was an ET in the US Navy in the late 90's and I haven't worked in the field since then. That being said I loved your video and the way it brought back my latent knowledge of electronics and basic logic gate functions.
@@user-ge4uk9ui8y Well... his 8-Bit CPU has way to little memory to implement linux ATM as is. The 64k memory limitation of a 8-bit system would make it severely challenging to cut it down to fit. adding extra cpu instructions, would help that task, but you would also need a disk drive interface (mass storage) interface to really make it possible. perhaps a microsd interface.
Thank you for satisfying my lust for the hardware-level technology. I've always been fascinated by computers on both the hardware-level and the low-level software.
@@brokenrobot2004 We all had to go through our fractions to get the opportunity to take computer science class! Stick with it and you can do it too one day!
25:55 The literal definition of ZOMG HAAAACKS!!! I am not a programmer, nor an engineer, but you explained this in a way that I could understand, and for that I thank you.
The hardest part will be taking the serial pixel data and piping it to the correct pixel in Screen.. also, would likely be slower than some kind of parallel write, because Minecraft.. still would be amazing to see, though.
Wow. Takes me back to my digital logic courses in college back in the late '70s. What amazes me is how familiar all thee chips are - most of them were available back then too. Also, I would have killed to have a scope like that one. It's magical! haha. Great videos. I just finished binging the 6502 series and the serial communication vids also. Ben's style is so easy to follow and quite educational, even for us old-time hackers.
I'm so glad I discovered this channel. I look outside and see all the craziness and I can turn it all off and watch something that is very concrete, logical, ordered. It's very theraputic.
@@ntal5859 It's not for a practical use, or how you could do it in the cheapest way, it's both a fun project and a teaching tool. It doesn't matter how you could do it cheaper, or more efficiently, or with more resolution, because it's a teaching tool.
Soundcards are essentially DACs (digital to analog converters) with an amplifier that is the attached to a speaker. So besides computing the sound, most of it is analog circuitry. It's also pretty easy to create sound with most microcontrollers.
Want more information or want to try building this yourself? Check out eater.net/vga for schematics, kits, and more!
OK.. but..... Will it run DOOM??? :-D
@@Ramdileo_sys no. It's a video card not a full computer system.
@@Ramdileo_sys 1
@@dwarslopers first i was going to ask "But Can It Run Crysis?" :-) ... ... but then i change my mind ;-D
Why vertical has more counter that the horizontal? Isn't the vertical contains less line than the horizontal?
Edit: I don't know if this is the right answer but my guess is that one pixel contains rgb so there. So computer need to scan 3 times to display the correct pixel per row. The row he wants to display is 800 pixel, but divided by 4 is 200, match the hsync, and then times 3 (because it needs to scan the same horizontal line 3 times to display the correct r, g and b value), which is 600, match the vsync. Just as a guess. Or I'm just dumb and it's because there's 600 horizontal lines
This is what I thought building a computer meant when I was a kid
Yeah well you can build up your entire computer like this lmao
Me too and I was disappointed to know it was just Lego building but easier
In some respects I actually wish it was, including the motherboard layout and touting lol.
@@techmad8204 Imagine you had to build a computer that way. It would take so long and probably never work...
Nexus 2500 😂 yeah but it’s very interesting all I do in my free time is read about computer architecture
This guy isn't stopping until he has a gaming computer that's the size of a building.
Can you imagine how many tiny wires he'd have to bend to breadboard that together? Good heavens.
I'm just imagining it. "Hey man, you wanna play cyberpunk?" *Turns on oscillator*
@@sbsftw4232 Suddenly, the building’s AC turns on and a VGA projector in the room turns on.
Showing Cyberpunk 2077z
@@AshtonSnapp somehow each of those things is also powered by a sig gen lmao
@Nick Janssens Forget petaflops. Its just one big flop.
You know the chip shortage is bad when you resort to this
Ya know this would be perfect for a mining rig
ya know this video was 2 years old
@@lynoska1951 yeah I'm just joking
@@Pheer777 no
@@lynoska1951 You don't think I'm joking?
This is what my mom thinks I do when I set up her WiFi.
So true man
If the boomers knew how little computering I really do ...
@@michaelwerkov3438 lmao yup. I'm so glad I was actually trained in I.T
The stuff they teach at the school I went to now is like elementary I feel bad for the lads.
and sometimes we make sure they think so by dropping some of those jargans
😂😂😂👌👍
I know very little about electronics, I have never built a circuit much more complex than a flashlight, yet I was able to follow and understand just about everything presented, I am incredibly impressed!
That's just awesome isn't it? :D I'm far from understanding all these microchips, bits and other electronic stuff and I prefer pure electric circuits, but this guy makes it so easy! I subed and I'm waiting for more :D
@@alanowa123 if you liked this, you would do well to read "But how do it know" it explains the main components of a computer in a way that is just as digestible and easy to understand as this video.
same, what a great teacher!
Same here. It makes me want to go out and build my own Video Card
It's simple enough that I'm surprised it's not taught in school to kids.
Windows: Install the drivers
Linux: Write your own drivers
Ben Eater: Build own video card
On Elementary OS right now, can confirm.
I CANNOT STOP LAUGHING LOOOOOOOL
Yes but like, Hail Linux (Currently on Linux Mint, really wanna switch though)
I Just Use Windows
@@indeepjable Have you ever even tried Linux?
"I've got a bunch of crystal oscillators here, and of course, none of them match the frequency we want."
Never have I heard a more relatable line spoken in a TH-cam video.
Fr
Murphy strikes again
Intel's been real quiet since this dropped
Lol, oh how far Intel has fallen.
The real chip shortage made by intel buying up all the 7400s series logic from the 1960s.
Since when did intel produce their gpu?
@@silvercloud6370 He's probably talking about the integrated graphics that come standard on a lot of intel CPUs.
😂
Clear and detailed explanations.
And most of all : video starts : he goes STRAIGHT to the point : no jingles, rubissh intro talk or w/ever, just pure electronics.
Thanks.
that's rare now in youtube videos, but i agree with you
That's a bad thing, I'm used to the Indian accent, static sound in the background and a kid crying somewhere in the house
HI GuYs Be4 wE sTArt Video HERe a gIveAWAy
It's beautiful.
Nice tux profile pic!
The 11 saddest words in the English language: "and that's what I'm going to tackle in the next video."
think positive, be happy there will be a next video :)
I'm thinking a frame buffer (just a block of memory -- probably SRAM -- that represents the pixels on your screen so you can manipulate it in software) and another chain of counters ANDed with the pixel-on line (the 200 horizontal counter). Though, I'm very interested in what he comes up with.
Now, getting images into the buffer is a whole 'nother kettle of fish...
@@Grstearns eeprom?
@@qwertykeyboard5901 If you want to just show a static image, then ROM is fine, but RAM makes more sense for quickly changing data like a computer's display data.
@@Grstearns Yep, you need a CPU to get images into the buffer, so Ben will have to build... oh, wait! He has already built an 8-bit computer! He'll probably have to expand the PC and put more RAM than the 16 bytes it has now, though...
As a software developer I always thought those hardware classes I took in school were dumb and annoying. little did I know it would allow me to watch this video and be absolutely fascinated by everything working together. I hope teachers are showing their students your videos because you explain so well and pace it fast enough to stay interesting but slow enough to be understandable. I think I may have found my new favorite TH-cam channel
as someone who's studying cs, nope. they rather just tell you how stuff generally functions in a week and then never mention it again
What is cs? Chip select?
@@ducksonplays4190 comp sci
This was exactly the kind of material covered in EE Logic Design courses. My school offered two levels (intro and advanced), but you needed Boolean math and EE core (DC and AC circuit analysis, and semiconductors 1 & 2) as pre-requisites. Everything in this video (except for some pin reduction techniques he used but didn't elaborate on) could easily have been an exam question or lab assignment. This video is really good at reducing really complicated stuff into an easily digested format.
As a SD it is useless
Most of us have no clue how our everyday electronics function. Thank you for taking the time to share your knowledge
Ben eater: Let's build the worst video card in the world
Intel HD graphics: Hold my beer
Ever heard of Intel 10th gen cpu's?
They made a secret discrete video card once ;) it never saw the market hehe
@@secretidentity2052 Intel iris plus graphics in 10th gen is comparable to MX 150.
S3 graphics: Hold my chipset
[REDACTED] inexhahalele69 ever heard of fucking ryzen? AMD’s already leagues ahead with their IGPUd
Minecraft Redstone TH-camrs: "it's actually quite simple"
They only get to call it simple because they built it 1000 times
Yeah, simply just some wires and chips
@@team6612 He literally made a video card. Don't act unimpressed you're a little kid living with you mum, I doubt you can even comprehend this video.
@@watchmarley9268 r/whoooosh
@@watchmarley9268 **with you mum**
This needs to be BIG!
I'm a Electronics Engineering student,and your videos have taught me a lot about electronics(more than my course actually). I'm actually working to build the 8-bit computer as a project,and I'll put updates frequently..
Your videos are so great in learning electronics--the practical way.
yes please
Exactly the same! What kind of architecture are you going for?
Same here! I switched my EE focus to embedded systems/computer arch. simply because of Ben. He has the best vids.
if you upload videos/pics of the process while you build it will be so nice :)
Yo same! I love digital electronics and this is a great add on for more specific things that I've always wanted to try.
Pretty much all of this video went right over my head and I still loved every second of it. Absolutely fantastic work
Imagine getting up from bed and be like: You know what, I'ma build a video card
@@spoont9544 Ok boomer
Luis Batista delete yours too and we can pretend it never happened hehe
Haha nope i win you lose bye bye
Luis Batista oofed
You know what, I'm gonna make a game
AFTER THIS VIDEO NVIDIA DAYS ARE NUMBERED ,WE START TO MAKE CUSTOM VIDEOCARDS 4 CHEAP
@Luca Rossi SpacenormanYT deleted his comment. lol
@@eggmeister6641 what did SpacenormanYT said
@@wyvern2037 Something about how the video card that Ben made isn't nearly as powerful as NVIDIA cards. Then Luca wooshed him and he deleted his comment.
@@SingularMechanicalCitrusFruit yup. new territory
@Luca Rossi r/ihavereddit
The world's best educational video card!
Three years ago this video was at my first exposure to display signal timing.
This morning, I submitted an initial order for my prototype EPD controller that supports multiple simultaneous partial refreshes
WOOO LETS GOO, very proud of you Mr. Green :). (If you wanna explain what it is, I am very interested in listening)
-graphic card sellers: let's raise the price
-this guy:Fine, I'll do it myself
fabulous video, waiting for next part
It's a video card, not a full fledged gpu. The difference being gpus are programmable with shaders (aka they also act like a cpu, in a way).
@@ZeroZ30o you must be fun at parties
@@andreisava4012 I mean I get it was meant to be a joke, I just felt the joke didn't work cuz it would be like saying "cpu sellers", and explained why.
I does 60 FPH ( frames per hour ) on minecraft at 200p
@Emma Keller (2026) well that's assuming you've all your roms pre programmed
"Ugh, I guess I'll check this out. it's gonna be boring or over my head."
*14 minutes in*
"I should look into doing electronics, this looks fun as heck"
If this is your first foray into the Ben Eaterverse, you have a lot of catching up to do! Enjoy! (I had to wait _months_ for some of his follow-up videos to come out! Rawr!)
@@kindlin yeah, I am looking at the video list and I absolutely want to try to recreate these projects just so I can understand logic circuits a bit better than I currently do. I just have to find plenty of breadboards and ICs >.>
I would check out a logic simulator. I can endorse Logisim as being easy enough to use that i've built a few simple computers with it, but there are others floating around that may work better
@@thomasteles697 well that entirely depends on what you mean by 'best'. if you're talking best in terms of raw power, you're dead wrong, but if we're talking about what's best for your soul then yeah obviously minecraft
I'm in the exact same spot. 40 minutes ago I'd never heard of this channel, and had zero expectation that I'd be able to follow any of this. Now I can't wait for the next one.
Ben Eater: Exists
People named Ben: (chuckles) I'm in danger.
Most underrated comment ever
Took me a while to get it
I gotta run and FAST
I think that is his name
He became the thing that he swore to destroy
The best
Well explained
You have been blessed by the algorithm gods. May you get views and engagement.
YES
Me sees video at 2am
“I don’t need sleep I need answers”
This is me right now, I'm should be working right now but I saw this, now I need answers, so work can wait.
Me 1 year ago
I don’t need growth, I need answers
Now I am far from my full height and stuck at 5’11 smh
@@FLAMEalan It doesn't work like that, don't worry
I watched this at 2 am and I slept
NicosoftNT It does affect it, because I used to sleep roughly 4 hours every day. I also don’t drink any dairy stuff or eat it so that also can affect my growth
This might be the worst possible video card but man what amazing explanation I understood all of it
In my next video I will be showing you how to play Battlefield 5 on this videocard, stay tuned and subscribe.
I bet the image it produces is unstable as hell judging by the signals on the o-scope
@@zerobyte802 the first few seconds of the video shows exactly the image it produces.
I'm too very smart
@@MasthaX You just have to do it now, I have subscribed dont fail me !
The level of knowledge you're willing to give away is incredible. Thanks for this.
That has got to be one of the most fascinating videos I've every watched, thanks. I'm only just starting out learning electronics but your explanation was so clear and well thought out I feel like I understood what was going on.
What's next? Is this guy going to make a gaming PC from nothing but chips and wires?
1 year later edit: I meant breadboard. I didn't really know the term
He did made a PC though.
Right now he is doing a series on 6502 which is what powered NES back in the day.
Could this card run doom 1
It could run Spyro 1 at 7.83 frames per day!
if your idea of gaming is a console-based game like rogue, why not
@@marcobonera838 don't forget about Nethack
Or the all-time classic, chess.
It's so cool seeing you do all this with simple logic gates. It also really make you appreciate the power of modern microcontrollers lol
So nuts to think that one of my monitors using VGA is processing all this stuff while I'm just sitting here
I find it amazing that someone takes time to beautifully explain these things with the most basic building blocks on a breadboard. I love your videos, inspired me to take a look in dad's old ic box and lo and behold he did this kind of stuff back in the old days! Thanks a lot!
"Actually I do want to hear about it, but don't blame me!"
made me laugh haha
Yeah, I'm curious too whether one could really damage a display with wrong timings these days, and whether what they say on osdev wiki about wrong video timings potentially frying your display holds any water :q
All the dislikes are Nvidia and AMD employees
Cyborgeddon don’t diss my boi and, they a good company that don’t overcharge people
@@FLAMEalan u dont get it
Alternatively it could be angry NVIDIA/AMD fans that think that actually the world's worst GPU is done by its competitor and is not the one on the video
@@FLAMEalan r/woooosh
Valdy exe lmao u don’t get my comment r/whoosh
I found your channel today. I took my computer hardware course in university back in 86. I am surprised that I still understand what you are doing here plus i can follow your explanation and the build up without pausing or rewinding. Interesting build. I think I am going to check all your videos.
Why do I have a feeling that if I show my IT teacher this, next year all the computers will become breadboards instead?
IKEA computers be like
Totally different fields man
IT isn't into hardware.
@@professorfukyu744 ah, I forgot to mention my teacher was very into breadboards. Knew that because he shows off his creation to the class every once in a while.
@@professorfukyu744 I'm super into hardware as an I.T graduate, So I don't know why your gatekeeping computing.
This is how engineering should be taught in college. Your videos are works of art.
agreed
I study in a college that would teach stuff just like this. It took the professor and the class an 8 hour lesson to figure out how to PWM control a PC fan.
Teaching something like this would be super expensive, too specific to teach relevant stuff and too time-consuming for the entire course to be about anything else.
yeah, videos are quite capable of skipping past all the tedious stuff, and even leave out the prep work that came before hand.
However, take this 30 minute video, and show it to the entire class... then ask questions about the video, and set the students to work on recreating what was in the video. 30 minute video, however much time it takes for students to build it themselves, boom lesson over.
They don't teach this stuff at school but rather at work...
@@Ramp10er Proving that school is just a money sinkhole to get a piece of paper.
Thanks you TH-cam algorithm for pointing me in this direction. I always wonder how electronics *really* work and this is a great tutorial. This should be shown in schools seriously. That kind of content just might have motivated me to stay in school and learn to do this.
It’s actually shown at universities, but way less interesting and tedious
Algorythm isnt a person!!
Snack3rS7 yes but he is just happy that he got recommended this and so am I
@Guillaume agreed
@@NRRC97 mainly because it takes a good bit of time to build the pre requisite knowledge.
With all due respect, I must say that I think this video is a work of art where the passion for electronics is well known...
Once every so often I pay a visit to enjoy this masterpiece again. Thank you teacher for sharing your knowledge and passion.
Great explanation.
I had to look up the 74ls161 datasheet. This chip has an asynchronous clear. That is what caused the 0.1 microsecond discrepancy on the pixel timing. The 74ls163 is drop in compatible and will solve this. It has synchronous clear.
74ls1900hp1256lb-fttrquechevy datasheet
I thought it wouldn't even work... I was worrying the whole video about it. I think he could also use flip-flops for that, or even an RC circuit with an Schmidt trigger inverter (74LS14, if I remember correctly), but that would have scared half the audience out! :D
@@guillep2k Ah, I'm glad you said that last part. I started to think y'all were actual computers or something.
Nani dafuck?!
To me it looks like you're speaking a whole different language
at least it's the latest gpu! it was built in 2019!
This comment is heavily underrated
This comment is heavily underrated
This comment is a bit underrated
This comment is quite underrated
This comment is massively underrated
At this rate Ben will run Minecraft in his breadboard
I mean it's not entirely impossible.
@@prehistoricBanana you'd need a pretty big breadboard though.
Mau365PP I don’t see how he’s gonna be able to run Minecraft in 60FPS on that breadboard tho
*makes this replica in scrap mechanic*
@@swxqt6826 well you'd need a fuckton of breadboards to build your own 64-bit computer from scratch.
Maybe not the world's highest definition video card, but definitely the world's most educational video card. Awesome job! I'm really enjoying the video!
Yeah, especially since the video card isn't hidden mainly in the silicon chip
"World's worst video card?" I don't know."Worlds best explanation?" Quite possibly so. Thanks for sharing this great video!
TH-cam algorithms just wanted to humiliate me and my finance degree.
Great video, I can't believe I watched all 32 minutes without knowing what a "bit" is.
Nico i can't belive it was really 32 minutes
BInary digiT.
You're welcome.
A bit is a 1 or a 0 represented as a electric current. A 1 is when the current is flowing a 0 is when it's not ;)
TH-cam showed me this on my startpage. never thought i would learn on youtube how a VGA card works.
Wtf??! Error 404 is learning, how is this possible :o
You can learn literally everything on TH-cam. Just type in what you want to see and it is there.
@@Engineer9736 thank you. But im perfectly aware. Just look at my sub list (required i have it public, no idea). I'm on youtube *alot*
Incredibly clear and concise video about video card sync circuits. Looking forward to the next one in the series.
My geek mind was just blown!
I'm on the software side of the universe and although I understand logic gates, I wouldn't have known how to build it from actual components. As Ben was building it, all the pieces fell in place in my mind. For example, once the counters were built, I thought: "Now we need a comparator."
I felt dumb when I realized that the comparator was just logical ANDs with the input signals inverted for the zero bits.
I love understanding how stuff works! Thank you for lighting up in what was still a dark corner for me!
POV: you use redstone on Minecraft once
@@brohanimetoying with Minecraft redstone in 2nd/3rd grade is what made me persue a CE major LMAO
Fuck I am so old xD @@ad.i
Me to
@@ad.iwhats ce major?
I'm a simple man: I see a new video from Ben Eater, I press play and like....
Im a simple man too😄
Your’e a simple man that copies comments
@@KiLLUMiNATii to master any art one must always begin with the art of imitation. This is the way all knowledge is gained and feelings conveyed, from our first steps to our last breaths.
I press like, then watch the video
When you completed the 8-bit CPU project, I was wondering what could be the next big one for you. And you come with this video card project. You are amazing Ben. Can't wait for the next video.
what, you mean he made a CPU ? (yes, i just arrived)
well so much for my evening !
@@Lapantouflemagic0 Yes, he made one. I'm actually studying how to build one, and I wonder whether it'll eventually have graphic or sound output.
It will never done.allways way improve ha
@@Lapantouflemagic0 if you just found this channel, then you can open his videos and binge watch them all to keep you busy until Ben puts out his next part.
@@Lapantouflemagic0 More than your evening. I just watched the whole playlist. It ran for over 12 hours.
There's something really relaxing about watching your video. I have no idea how to do this myself but the way you explain it just makes sense and I can follow along quite well. Thank you, Ben! This is very interesting to watch.
This video is so good it actually got recommended to watch in university...
Damm that's tight
This is so awesome. I was just trying to figure out how VGA worked, looking up schematics, watching other (not as well laid out videos). And, I actually wanted to rewatch something about your 8-bit computer. I looked up your channel and found you had just posted this minutes ago. Perfect! I'm looking forward to the follow up videos. Thanks!
me: watching this video
my brain: "Dial up modem sound"
Do you want me to unplug the phone to stop the dial up
Take a digital electronics class
TH-cam: New video by Ben Eater
my brain: *Space Cadet start-up sound*
(Watches video)
My last 2 brain cells: *playing pong*
I think it's incredible that I can watch this with just the knowledge of how binary works and a logic class I took 10 years ago and come out understanding everything except how the specific wiring works. You're an excellent teacher
Saving this for later because I'm not smart enough to fully appreciate it lmao
Well when you do it's easily one of the most metal things someone can do
I literally have a playlist dedicated to things like that: videos I watched and realized "I'm really not ready for this yet, but I am curious..."
Hey how's the smarts going?
@Cloud TH-cam What? (I tanslated it to English)
Edit: I think Google translate botched it.
@@faielgila7375 pls make your playlist public! :D
Man, I don't think I've ever been more excited for an upcoming video! I want to see some RGB values!
I do GPGPU computing for work, so this is kinda relevant.
We have done this on FPGAs many times, however, it is an invaluable experience to see authentic circuitry handcrafted like that!
Canberk Sönmez read to here and win a beer
Interested in your FPGA video work if you have links
@@politesociety I have a digital storage type oscilloscope project designed to run on a Altera Cyclone development board. Links are not available right now, but if you are interested, I can upload that on GitHub
The dark arts of FPGAs, I worked on that too!
Just because something's an FPGA doesn't mean it's "not authentic." That depends on if it's original or a copy.
I appreciate your hard work and amount of time you invest to make this video.
and as a FPGA engineer i have been working on PAL standard and camara inputs.
So I recommend this video for one who try to understand basics of video signal.
Very interesting stuff. learned a lot ! Could you also build "The world's worst sound card" plx ? would appreciate this.
I also want to see this.
I would love to see this
it is too easy just a couple of transistors to make an amp cirquit
@@SimonBauer7 Making a soundcard is anything but easy. You don't just need an amp, you also need some memory buffer that can be written to and read from at the same time and a DAC that is capable of holding a steady clock rate when producing signals. The amp is only the last stage of a soundcard (and, strictly speaking, it isn't even needed to qualify as a sound card, as you can also just use an external amp, we only integrate amps in sound cards for convenience sake). It's easier than making a video card, but not easy by any means.
@@gayusschwulius8490 The components required would completely depend on the rest of the computer ofc. If you used a modern CPU you'd have access to DMA and wouldn't need a memory buffer. Building a low quality soundcard is actually easy, more so than making the video card in this clip, but on the other hand, this video card isn't difficult, it's just tedious when you manually forge timers like this. Using more modern hardware you could simply use a fast enough microcontroller or FPGA and do almost all of it entirely by code and 1 single chip with a power supply. For a soundcard you could use a micro or FPGA with either an internal or external DAC simply using a decent crystal oscillator and prescalers. The sound card wouldn't need nearly as high of a frequency either. You could run it at something like 44KHz and just output a sample every tick in both directions. The key would be to find a DAC that is at least 16 bits
It's good, but I would like to see something more low level. How the plastic was created for example.
He obtains all the parts naturally, processes them, forges wires, and then builds the pc that way lol
@@NETBotic Right, before we make anything we need to create energy and matter first!
@@mikejones-vd3fg something like that
@@NETBotic Good news is that it came from nothing apparently, so we still have a chance to make some more. Just need to get a hold of some nothing and we're on the right track i think.
Imagine having to do this after a comet freezes the earth.....
How did he have all of the wires bent so perfectly 😂😂😂 my circuits look like a toddler threw spaghetti on a bread board
Measuring, I guess. The small amount of wiring I have ever done also looks like dogshit.
they sell pre measured and cut jumpers
Eclipse best thing I’ve seen all day 😂
From Ebay I assume. Like everything else.
I pre-measure mine, taking into account the bend and the amount I'm going to strip off, then I bend them with a needle-nose pliers. I always cut a little extra and trim off what I don't need.
I feel like this should be the beginning of a series that ends with him using breadboards and wires to make an entire computer
Binary data displayed from left to right? Madman, simply terrifying. 🤣
Not if you turn it upside down tho 😏
little endian is the superior bit order
Thank you for continuing this. You are filling a massive hole in our society: information on the powerful and useful devices which are sadly controlling our lives and the balance of power ever more. Education is the first step towards renewed progress.
I find that most of the teaching material on computer science is poorly written, by people who are used to writing manuals for colleagues rather than text books for newbies. The fact that you produce (free!) videos and not just text and images makes it even better, ready for the 21st century. I cannot put into words how much I value and appreciate what you're doing, and how highly I rate your contribution to the world. Thank you.
Read your comment and I wholeheartly agree.
Took Electronics on High School. Decided to go for Mechanical Engineering. I just stumbled upon this video and it can be followed.
Ben Eater's video card: "I am the worst in the world"
Intel HD Graphics 4000: "Hold my beer"
Edit:RIP my inbox
Uhh, no, even my old Intel GMA graphics are worse than that, and they are certainly better than a graphics card which can only output a black screen.
@@happysmash27 naa hold my beer. **Slaps Intel HD Graphics 4000** this bad boy is the worst video card
No Intel HD Graphics 2500 is worse
Never heard about Intel GMA family chipset guys ?
@@nswordsn4249 I've got a GMA 945 in my laptop. Slowest pile I've ever had the misfortune of using
I just came to this video because of the fun thumbnail thinking I will get some nice crafting or something and here I received a full-blown university lesson.
Just connecting the horizontal pixel counter bits to the R G B monitor inputs should draw some nice stripes.
Brilliant! Vertical stripes, driven by higher bits buffered and voltage divided... 8 different color variations? More colors filling in going from left to right.
Hadn't thought of that.
I figured you could just tie one or more of the RGB lines high (with suitable level conversion - though I assume the sync lines are at the same voltage level anyway)
I actually thought the easiest thing to do with a design like this would be to wire some suitable pots to the R G B inputs, so you could arbitrarily change the colour of the whole display.
The only thing I'm uncertain about is whether you actually have to cut the signal when outside the active display period.
If not, you can literally just tie the inputs to an arbitrary voltage level (within the safe range of what VGA expects), otherwise you'd have to sync it with the timing counters somehow.
@@KuraIthys Fancy Philips Hue light. Actually, it's kinda crazy that there's a lot more digital logic inside a Philips Hue light bulb!
I can’t wait
No spoilers please! :-)
"So if you damage your monitor, don't blame me, I don't wanna hear about it... Actually I do wanna hear about it" lol
I would absolutely love a video on how to make breadboard circuits with the degree of perfection you manage to make!!!
Nice user name, mate
Same here! My circuits look like forests of upward curved wires.
Cutting solid core wire to the exact size, as well as knowing in advance what you want the circuit to look like, helps a lot
well, thats because we arent watching in real time as he makes this, he made this all, taking hundreds of hours, ahead of time, then he made every wire perfect, had all the pins and wires mapped out where they go, and just followed along with his notes when he shot the video.
Everything looks great if you do all the work beforehand. its the julia childs method!
1. Make them really messy and get them working.
2. Rewire them with nicely shaped and bent wires.
3. Dissemble (but keep notes of what they looked like)
4. Reassemble on camera using pile of nicely pre-formed wires.
Simples!
Sure would be nice if the majority of youtube was composed of videos like this. I love learning exactly how things work. Very well done!!
How can I tell Google that I want more videos of this quality in my recommendations?
You like electronics? Here's somebody filling a swimming pool with toast! That's what you want, right? Right...?
By removing unwanted videos from your YT history - it works at least for me.
Watch all of Ben’s videos. That will be a strong signal of your preferences.
@@PrimerBlobs I'm almost halfway through :)
Subscribe.
This was one of those videos I clicked on hoping it was made a while ago so that I could go watch the next video instantly after 😂
Hi Ben! I'm a high school student, going into my senior year this September. I took a computer engineering class back in grade 10, and struggled to find the motivation to complete my work and I lacked an overall interest in the subject. I recently found your channel from LiveOverflow, and your videos have personally sparked an interest into the world of computer engineering again. You take interesting topics, and explain them in such a way that even your most novice viewers can enjoy and understand. Thank you so much for the amazing content, and please keep it up!
Both are great channel.
Add my name to this comment!
Intel HQ: "Ben Eater built one in a cave! With a box of scraps!!"
as everyone else previously mentioned - absolutely stellar explanation, and good video - but this is the first video i've ever seen of you, and you had that cliffhanger at the end of the video, so i'll hate you for forcing me to sub :p
You do not have to subscribe. Just keep it in your memory and come back later. ^^
@@3333927 nah man im good, he deserves the sub anyhows
Finally I can make some Nvidia GTX 1670.
Thank you.
Sure you can but you need lot of equipments for that
Because they are digital coded gpu's
@@mikuhorizon u missed the joke
@@subaru6026 No I didn't missed it
@@mikuhorizon well then u missed ur english class, who tf says i didn't missed it
@@subaru6026 Sorry I'm from Japan
This is great! Absolutely love when someone breaks down a piece of hardware or software by building a DIY copy of it. Excellent work!
“The worlds worst video card”
GT 210: “Finally, a worthy opponent! Our battle will be legendary”
I was an ET in the US Navy in the late 90's and I haven't worked in the field since then. That being said I loved your video and the way it brought back my latent knowledge of electronics and basic logic gate functions.
Ben Eater: *Builds a GPU*
Me: *Still trying to figure out how a breadboard works*
Edit: Thanks for 500 likes
Me, even worse: Try to figure out what is breadboard
@@tardisthephonebox Yeah that's a option too :D
Tardis ThePhoneBox First time i saw circuits videos I was confused thinking the guy was gonna make a snack
I still have to look ot up to remember whenever I see one
breadbox* yea i have the same problem
With 6m views and 6k comments my voice will be lost here but I enjoyed this video so much... a beautfully made and fascinating video. Thank you Ben.
I don't even know that much of electronics and understood this perfectly. Brilliant video. Thanks!
this is SOOOO exciting. after the next video... i'm really starting to anticipate some sort of VGA output for the 8-bit computer!
I'm hoping that it will play PONG. ( It will need an audio circuit that goes "beep" for a hit and "bloop" for a miss . . . ) - j q t -
@Andrew Vaughan linux wont run on it because that computer is not implementing the full ibm pc architecture
Andrew Vaughan Check our Bill Buzbee’s Magic-1 running a port of Minix 2. www.homebrewcpu.org
@@user-ge4uk9ui8y Well... his 8-Bit CPU has way to little memory to implement linux ATM as is. The 64k memory limitation of a 8-bit system would make it severely challenging to cut it down to fit. adding extra cpu instructions, would help that task, but you would also need a disk drive interface (mass storage) interface to really make it possible. perhaps a microsd interface.
Thank you for satisfying my lust for the hardware-level technology. I've always been fascinated by computers on both the hardware-level and the low-level software.
i like how this is filmed in such a way that it appears to be in a featureless void. this is an electronics nerd demiurge's pocket dimension
It would be great to use this with the 8-Bit computer to display something.
It’s the intention of him i guess
it only has 8 places so a 4:2
Wow Ben! All those years learning electronics I can finally see how it applies to the real world. Thank you for that!
Honestly this just made me want to stop failing my computer architecture class.
@anonymoose no, go create a SuperH CPU in Verilog.
YOu HAVE A COMPUTER CLASS AT SCHOOL???????!!!! I'd DIE FOR THAT!! All I get is fractions :C
Just curious, what course did you apply for?
@@brokenrobot2004 We all had to go through our fractions to get the opportunity to take computer science class! Stick with it and you can do it too one day!
Me before watching: Yay I'll learn something new today
Me after watching: wait what jus happened
25:55 The literal definition of ZOMG HAAAACKS!!!
I am not a programmer, nor an engineer, but you explained this in a way that I could understand, and for that I thank you.
I cant wait to see this hooked up to the 8bit breadboard computer
You know its going to be good when its in your recommended at 3 am
You've literally just given minecraft Redstone engineers a blueprint for making a video card in minecraft
The hardest part will be taking the serial pixel data and piping it to the correct pixel in Screen.. also, would likely be slower than some kind of parallel write, because Minecraft.. still would be amazing to see, though.
I need to try building it
Oh shit yea ur right
Yes.
@@corneliaxaos2745 i dont remenber who, but someone alrealdy did it, and have done a atari emulator
Wow. Takes me back to my digital logic courses in college back in the late '70s. What amazes me is how familiar all thee chips are - most of them were available back then too. Also, I would have killed to have a scope like that one. It's magical! haha. Great videos. I just finished binging the 6502 series and the serial communication vids also. Ben's style is so easy to follow and quite educational, even for us old-time hackers.
Holy shit, it's the best recommendation I got so far. Great work, you earned a new sub.
I'm so glad I discovered this channel. I look outside and see all the craziness and I can turn it all off and watch something that is very concrete, logical, ordered. It's very theraputic.
There is nothing "logical" in using 1960s 7400s series logic gates when a $2 MPU and a 10 lines of C code could do it....
@@ntal5859 It's not for a practical use, or how you could do it in the cheapest way, it's both a fun project and a teaching tool. It doesn't matter how you could do it cheaper, or more efficiently, or with more resolution, because it's a teaching tool.
Amazing and very very insightful! After a video card, perhaps you could do a sound card too?!
and then make testris
Soundcards are essentially DACs (digital to analog converters) with an amplifier that is the attached to a speaker. So besides computing the sound, most of it is analog circuitry.
It's also pretty easy to create sound with most microcontrollers.
There's actually a way to build a DOS-addressable sound device using a parallel port and a resistor ladder.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Covox_Speech_Thing