May 9, 2024

There is no such thing as a restrict to human creativeness. That has been confirmed but once more as a man has used the spreadsheet software program Microsoft Excel to create a literal central processing unit (CPU). The YouTuber Inkbox utilized Excel’s method bar, a number of thousand cells in Excel, and his extremely expert engineering mind to turn out to be the creator of this 16-bit Excel CPU. The result’s actually spectacular!

After all, it’s not even remotely corresponding to the super-powerful Intel Core i9-14900K. You’ll be able to even obtain this on GitHub, which can ship you “.XLSX” information. This challenge aimed to create the idea of a CPU inside Excel.

Are you aware how CPUs are additionally known as “System on a Chip (SoC)”? Effectively, it is a “system on a spreadsheet,” in response to Inkbox, the creator of this Excel-based CPU.

No precise bodily circuitry is used. Nonetheless, the cells in Excel had been basically used as an emulator. Watching the video explainer he uploaded is tremendous instructional and can educate you the internal workings of a CPU. This Excel-based challenge made by Inkbox is kind of a low-level 16-bit CPU as in comparison with the 64-bit structure that fashionable processors are made in thoughts with right this moment.

excel-asm16 assembly language for execl cpu made by inkbox
The creator additionally made an meeting language termed EXCEL-ASM16 to construct packages to run on the Excel CPU | Picture Courtesy: Inkbox YT

Based on the creator, the design of this Excel-based CPU has been made with a number of elements. There are 9 totally different elements that he has constructed cell by cell (after all, additionally using productive Excel ideas akin to auto-filling).

Because the video progresses, issues get much more fascinating. There’s a 128×128 16-color show and 128KB of RAM. The ALU (arithmetic logic unit), CU (management unit), fetch unit, register file, multiplexers, and PC unit are all current right here.

One main caveat is that this Excel-based CPU is kind of gradual. The low-end Intel Processor 300 (so gradual it doesn’t have the title Core in it) has a 3.9 GHz (gigahertz) clock pace. This converts to 3900MHz (megahertz). Now, 1 MHz equals to 1000000 Hz (hertz). Based on the creator of this Excel CPU challenge, the ultimate pace just isn’t quicker than 2 to three Hz.

Regardless of this, it’s nonetheless tremendous spectacular to witness the computing prowess of Inkbox’s Excel CPU. What are your ideas on this spreadsheet-based CPU? Tell us within the feedback down under!

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