The curiosity and free time of some users allowed us to discover a large number of curious projects that have no everyday functionality, but which demonstrate the level of ingenuity and knowledge of some users. Good evidence of this can be found in every device you can play Doom on, from tractors to pregnancy tests to refrigerators to calculators and even Excel.
The latest example of this curiosity is not found in the video game Doom, but in Excel. YouTube user Inkbox published a video on this platform in which he shows how he was able to create a 16-bit processor in Excel.
The possibilities of Excel in combination with Visual Basic and the different plugins that can be added are practically endless and a good proof of this is the competition organized each year where the best game created with this Microsoft application is awarded.
16-bit processor using Excel only
This user shows in the video that we leave you below, all the steps he followed to create a 16-bit processor using Excel at a speed of 3 Hz, with 128 KB of RAM, with a resolution of 128 × 128 pixels and a 16-color screen. These are the specifications that could be found on PCs from the late 80s.
But what is most striking about this project is that You have not used Visual Basic scripts or plugins, so we can replicate it on any PC using all native Exel resources without additional plugins. To accomplish this project, he created a fully functional assembly language called Excel-AASM16, a language that includes 24 functions with support for variables and even binaries and labels, more than enough to satisfy the restrictions of a processor 16 bits. .
In the video, Inkbox explains how she carried out the process from scratch, considering at all times the problems she faced from the beginning and looking for solutions to be able to overcome them and be able to complete it successfully. Operating at just 3 Hz, we can see the Internal workings of the processor by doing the calculations.
In fact, this project, like many others, has no real daily functionality, being an example of both the possibilities of Excel and the knowledge of this user, which is also shared publicly so that any user can test through its website on GitHub, so that anyone who wants to improve it or adapt it to specific needs can do so without any problems.
The GitHub page of this project also shows all the instructions that we must follow to be able to use this 16-bit processor in Excel and how we can get the most out of it within the limits that it offers us, which are not uncommon. Inkbox does not comment on which version of Excel it is compatible with, so, in theory, it is compatible with all versions released by Microsoft for this application.
