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Imagining the CPS-1: An Early 70s 4-bit Microcomputer from Canada[Michael Gardi] wrote in to let us know about his project: CPS-1: Imagining An Early 70s 4-bit Microcomputer

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  • Imagining the CPS-1: An Early 70s 4-bit Microcomputer from Canada

    [Michael Gardi] wrote in to let us know about his project: CPS-1: Imagining An Early 70s 4-bit Microcomputer.

    The CPS-1 was the first Canadian microprocessor-based computer. It was built by Microsystems International Ltd. (MIL) in Ottawa between 1972 and 1973 and it is unknown how many were made and in what configurations. The CPS-1 supported a 12-bit address bus and a 4-bit data bus. MIL also developed the supporting hardware including RAM. The processor was called the MIL 7114.

    [Michael] worked in collaboration with [Zbigniew Stachniak] from York University Computer Museum. [Zbigniew] had developed a MIL CPS-1 Emulator and [Michael]’s job was to implement a front panel hardware interface for the emulator which runs on a Raspberry Pi. The only complication: there are no remaining CPS-1 computers, and no known photographs, so no one can say for sure what a real front panel might have looked like!

    With a bit of guess work and 3D printing, as well as some inspiration from contemporaneous hardware such as the DEC PDP-11, [Michael] came up with an implementation. He used an IO extender HAT which adds 32 IO pins to the existing Pi GPIO pins that are accessible via an 3-wire I2C interface. This was enough hardware to support the 26 switches and 29 LEDs on the panel. There’s a brief demo of the custom printed switches in the video embedded below.

    If you’re interested in old school 4-bit tech you might also like to check out 4-bit Single Board Computer Based On The Intel 4004 Microprocessor.

    youtube.com/embed/tPiEd84HB2M?…


    hackaday.com/2025/09/19/imagin…


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