It’s fair to say that Tindie has lots of variety. For example, a casual search reveals that it’s pretty trivial to find boards and systems in the Tindieverse ranging all the way from 64-bit down to 1-bit! Sat at the lower end of the scale is the 4-Bit Microcontroller Trainer V2 board from Subsystems.
This excellent little device is the second version of the project and is a little more affordable than version 1 as fabrication has moved to surface mount technology. The trainer simulates a 4-bit microcomputer that can be programmed in machine language. There are 31 different instructions in the simulated architecture and the hardware includes a small LCD display, a speaker and an onboard keyboard. There’s memory onboard also in two slots to save two different states.
Even if some of the above was a little hard to understand, you have no need to worry — there is a quite brilliant curriculum written out for this device linked off the product page. The curriculum PDF is well worth a download in its own right as it steps through from absolute fundamentals before jumping into machine language.
We think it’s fair to say that if you went through the curricula on this device, despite it being only 4-bit, you would have a fine foundation in the very essence of computing. Supplied fully assembled this device is powered via the Micro USB socket making it a super portable learning device to carry with you.
