Hi, I want to build my own motherboard from scratch, is there any free
software and book/books you can recommend for me? I am thinking about using
a backplane design with pluggable modules.

Please help!
Thanks!

TAB books had a whole series on building a S100 based computer using
the backplane motherboard approach approach. They are still seen on
ebay today.

I want it to be PC compatible though any help would be appreciated!
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TAB books had a whole series on building a S100 based computer using
the backplane motherboard approach approach. They are still seen on
ebay today.

I suppose you could reverse engineer from a schematic an old 8088 or
8086 based pc compatible machine and actually burn the eeprom and build
one that would work.

If you are talking about anything current technology, you simply do not
have the equipment or technology to build one that will work. Unless
you have a few million to spend on the layout equipment, board
fabrication, surface mount solder, etc....

schreef in bericht
oups.com...
I suppose you could reverse engineer from a schematic an old 8088 or
8086 based pc compatible machine and actually burn the eeprom and build
one that would work.

If you are talking about anything current technology, you simply do not
have the equipment or technology to build one that will work. Unless
you have a few million to spend on the layout equipment, board
fabrication, surface mount solder, etc....


You can simply use any free Board-edittors and there are company's that make
PCB's by postorder or through the internet.
The SMD part's can also be soldered with a good solder station (OKI/JBC).
I work in the assambly industrie and with rework / prototyping I place
everything by hand. The fine-pitch IC's are soldered by hand while 0805 and
0403 is placed by hand and reflowed (but it can be done by hand).

Alexander

schreef in bericht
oups.com...
And these free board editors will do 8 to 16 layer boards with the high
frequency circuit trace routings that are required at the GHZ range?

The "homebrew" and small scale prototyping work that does not require
anything more than a double sided board without special radio frequency
board layout issues are well suited to the free board editors.

I would not want to place anything like a 370 pin surface mount IC on a
multi-layer board by hand without the correct equipment.

Then there is writing all the code for the Bios and drivers for the
operating system on top of the actual construction.

I am not sure the OP is quite sure what is really involved, especially
when you can buy a Pentium based motherboard brand new for $29.

If the OP really just wants the experience of building a computer, I
think there are still some brand new Sinclair ZX81 kits available on
ebay for $99.

I just pointed out that nothing is impossible.

You should as you pointed out take care of the kind of free editor you use.

The placemant of many IC's is not a problem (at least for me), the problems
start when placing a BGA by hand

The writing of the BIOS and Drivers can also be tricky.

But if the OP has the required experience and is willing to put in more than
a year of spare time I say go ahead.

I build a Z80 kit from scratch, just text output. It took me about half a
year to get the schematics, then another few month to get the hardware work.
And after that a year to get the software work reliable.
Now this is rotting somewhere on a shelf.

If you do this for a new Processor and want all the functionality of a
normal motherboard you should invest about 5 years or more. And after that
the stuff is already outdated.

A good option is to place existing pieces together as is done by cheap
motherboards. But that is not the ultimate goal.

Alexander