Moo Machine Demostration

Two physical Moo Machines will be available for hands-on demonstrations. The first machine will be a scale-model of the Altair 8800. The physical layout and experience will attempt to match the Altair 8800 as closely as possible. A second machine will be a scaled down portable version, maintaining as much of the interface of the full scale model as possible.

The Cow Programming Language will be used in lieu of the original 8080 machine language of the Altair 8800. The language consists of only 11 instructions and includes an open source interpreter. TheM language is fairly easily to implement and understand by those not familiar with language design. Although the language is difficult to work with itself, the simplified instructions and interpreter allow a more transparent overall design to the machine.

Three demonstration programs will be saved in EEPROM for quick access. A “hello world” program will display the characters of “Hello World!”, in ASCII binary, one at a time. The second program will be a simple counter. The third demonstration will be a Fibonacci sequence generator. These programs can be loaded and run instantly for participants. Both the simple loop counter and the Fibonacci sequence generator are small enough to be hand-entered, if desired.

Handouts will include:

• One-page “Getting Started” handout, with basic usage of the machine and how to load the example programs. Handout will include link to site with more detailed information.
• “Program by Hand” handout, with and overview of the language, all three example programs, and instructions for how to enter them into the Moo Machine.
• A few copies of schematics and program printouts for reference.
• ASCII chart for reference.