You'll Envy This Teenage Supergenius

[Earnest Cavalli]

You'll Envy This Teenage Supergenius

At a time when most teens would be swiping bottles from dad's liquor cabinet, Jack Eisenmann handcrafted an 8-bit computer.

Don't get the wrong idea, this wasn't a simple "insert video card into AGP slot" computer build. No, that would be too easy for the recent high school grad.

The computer Eisenmann built, officially dubbed "Duo Adept," was cobbled together from a pile of chips that the teen hand-wired together. The prospective programmer then wrote a custom operating system for the machine, complete with a Pong clone and a homebrew title Eisenmann calls Get Muffins (that Yahoo News likens to Donkey Kong).

Admittedly, the Duo Adept is far from a supercomputer. If anything, it would seem at home in the late 1980s. Official specs can be found on the Duo Adept site [http://web.mac.com/teisenmann/iWeb/adeptpage/description.html], but highlights include the machine's 64KB of main memory and 6KB of video RAM (which outputs monochrome video at 240x208 resolution).

The machine currently displays video via a standard television set, accepts input from a QWERTY keyboard and is stored within some kind of oversized tupperware container. It would seem wildly low-rent, if it wasn't so fittingly apropos given the project's DIY roots.

Of course, anyone can toss a bunch of silicon scraps inside a storage tub and claim to have built a computer. This being the Internet, I'm sure someone has done that at one time or another. Eisenmann however, offers video proof of the Duo Adept in action:


Normally, I'd slam Eisenmann's choice of music in that clip, but after seeing the Duo Adept in action, I just don't feel right questioning his creative decisions. If he can manage something like this right out of high school, what will he be building as an adult?

*Cue ominous orchestral swell.*

Source: Yahoo News [http://web.mac.com/teisenmann/iWeb/adeptpage/menu.html]

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[insanelich]

If this is what it takes to be a supergenius, then standards have fallen very far.

This would be impressive only if he was under ten years old. It's not remotely impressive for a teenager.

Ready-fabbed chips. If he had made the chips himself, this would be somewhat impressive, but still not newsworthy. But with premade chips, it's simply commonplace.

 

[Kenjitsuka]

Envy him why?
He's not even old enough to get drunk of his arse!

Plus this makes you a God on the Internet for one second, but at school you get beat up for it and at work people just think you're a weirdo.

If anything a supergenius should be focused on the future, little things called poverty and world hunger need solving more than remaking old crap imho.

 

[Cousin_IT]

He's in for a shock when he finds out that building that won't get him laid over the summer

 

[Lazy Kitty]

That's actually pretty awesome...

Definitely a challenge I'd like to try if I ever find the time...

EDIT after checking some fotos:

Ah, so he's running it on 4.5V...
Interesting...

 

[Fappy]

I'd be impressed if he built a robot parrot.

 

[Ferroto Baggins]

I see your TTL computer and raise you a relay computer.

 

[Emurlahn]

Impressive? Yes, he has my applause indeed, I could never do anything like that (maybe I could, but I doubt we will ever find out), I and respect his skill and the amount of work he put into it.
Supergenius? Hardly, if he had made a NASA-esque computer we could talk about supergenuis, but and 8-bit comp? 30 year old hardware that you can make from dirt and kitchenware (not literaly), does not qualify for supergenius.
Skilled on the other hand, indeed.

 

[Zephirius]

Am I the only one who's loving the fact this young inventor's last name is German for "Iron Man"?

If he can manage something like this right out of high school, what will he be building as an adult?

I got a hunch..

 

[CezarIgnat]

I agree to what people previously said. Yes, he is a very smart kid! Kudos for building it, I was never interested enough or have the income to try this and I would probably give up fast.

But...that's hardly supergenious...he did just graduate high-school.

 

[Ferroto Baggins]

I wouldn't call him a super-genius, but he certainly has a knack for engineering.

 

[Johny64]

Envy him why?
He's not even old enough to get drunk of his arse!

Plus this makes you a God on the Internet for one second, but at school you get beat up for it and at work people just think you're a weirdo.

If anything a supergenius should be focused on the future, little things called poverty and world hunger need solving more than remaking old crap imho.

Nobody in my school would kick my ass for this, and i'm in the 9th grade.

 

[Fetzenfisch]

friend of mine did the same thing at age 13 in the early nineties. Its really not that spectaculat if you know the matter.
(only plus on his side was, in '92 it wasnt that outdated yet)

 

[hudsonzero]

Jack Eisenmann/Tony Stark was able to build this with a box of scraps.

 

[TheTinyMan]

I wound up building most of those parts very independently throughout my college career. An OS, serial communication, we put together an old-school Mac out of chips and wires. It didn't actually require any special ability other than a manual, either. Supergenius? No. Leagues above your average Joe? Oh, yes. Would I give him a job straight out of high school? Definitely.

The worst part is the tedium. SO MANY WIRES. If one comes loose, it can be impossible to identify the cause of the bug it'll result in.

He mentioned custom machine code. I want to know what he means by that, unless he just means that he wrote processor instructions directly. When I read that what I think I interpret is "custom processor instructions," which I don't think I believe.

And I sure don't mean to disparage - this is quite impressive.

 

[SaintWaldo]

So, he's completed a project that would make him the star of a 1980's era homebrew club, if he was 3 years younger. You know, like that Steve and that Bill.

Great Timex Sinclair! Awesome Job!

 

[KarlMonster]

He hasn't done anything "new", but for a HS grad its impressive.

And it means that he's accomplished much more with tupperware, than the FBI did to its antequated systems with millions of dollars and about 8 years time.

 

[matrix3509]

Honestly why the hell would you bash his musical choices? That has to be the most badass chiptune I've heard in a LONG time.