# Cardiograph computers

The Cardiographs are a pair of imaginary computers,
designed as educational toys.

Inspired by the CARDIAC paper computer,
they are intended to be simple enough to build as
hand-operated paper models.

Their design is guided by two additional criteria:

1. They should be capable of producing interesting graphical output
2. They should accurately model the functioning of a real computer
   (by operating on binary data, for example)

## The two computers

The two Cardiograph computers are:

1. the _Cardiograph Mark I_ (CG) is a mainframe machine
2. the _Micro Cardiograph_ (µCG) is a microprocessor trainer
   (a miniaturized descendent of the mainframe)

They use the same instruction set and have very similar CPUs. (TODO: is that true?)

The main difference is in their peripheral hardware:
the Mark I is designed for batch processing and supports punched-card input,
while the MicroCardiograph is designed to be used interactively.

## Simulator

_[Micro ElectroCardiograph (µECG)](micro/readme-micro.md)_ is a simulator for the Micro Cardiograph.

## Documentation

- [Specification for the Cardiograph Architecture](docs/architecture-specification.md)
- [Design for the mainframe computer](docs/mainframe-design.md)
- [Design for the micro computer](docs/micro-design.md)
- [Assembly Language](docs/assembly-language.md)