“It runs at 500 kHz, has a 512 kB program memory and 512 kB RAM. It also features a simple B&W VGA card with resolution of 200x150 px, so we can connect an external monitor and display some simple graphics.”
Filip Szkandera is 19 and spent two years building a 32-bit RISC-V CPU from discrete chips, with no FPGA and no microcontroller. It runs RV32I, so stock compilers target it. The stated goal is to prove that designing a modern CPU isn’t that hard. At 500 kHz, it also proves why nobody builds them this way anymore.