Athena is a practical 8-bit computer build and associated learning, measurement, verification, and documentation project.
This repository is the authoritative engineering record for Athena. Chat history may support the work, but established designs, measurements, decisions, experiments, faults, and evidence should be recorded here.
Athena is published as an engineering and learning record. Pull requests and issues are not currently accepted, but discussion and technical questions are welcome via GitHub Discussions.
The repository is intended to hold:
- KiCad schematics and PCB/design files
- breadboard build records and wiring information
- photographs
- oscilloscope captures
- logic-analyser captures
- measurements and test results
- design decisions and architectural notes
- experiments and fault reports
- datasheets and reference material
- firmware, programs, scripts, and utilities
- superseded designs and failed experiments retained for historical and learning value
Athena is separate from Phoenix.
Athena is the practical 8-bit computer build and its associated learning/documentation record. Phoenix is the separate modular computer architecture project centred on FPGA/Verilog and broader modular multi-processor exploration. Phoenix material must not be placed in this repository.
The project prioritises understanding, observability, and verification. Measurements, scope traces, logic-analyser captures, photographs, and controlled experiments are treated as engineering evidence rather than incidental artefacts.
Provisional ideas, confirmed decisions, superseded work, and failed experiments should remain distinguishable in the record rather than being silently overwritten.
Athena should favour understandable and verifiable solutions, but it need not always favour the most conventional solution. Unusual, historically interesting or unexpected period-appropriate devices and architectures may be explored where they add educational value, observability or understanding. Novelty is not itself a requirement and must not displace electrical correctness or clear verification.