In my quest to build a hardware-based binary prime number generator I decided to build a demonstration model / rapid prototype to prove to myself (and the world) that I can reliably (and quickly) generate prime numbers. This code needs a lot of work, but it’s functional. Instead of messing with tons of little LEDs, it just dumps the output to a LCD. Of note, the library to run the LCD takes up about 90% of the memory of the chip leaving only a handful of free bytes to write the actual code in!

Keep in mind this is a PROTOTYPE and that the full version will have over 80 LEDs to represent every number in binary form (up to 2^25, 33.5 million, with 25 LEDs/number). For now, this version (which dumps data to a HD44780 LCD screen) serves as a proof of concept. Powered by an ATTiny2313.

Here’s some video:

Here’s the code responsible:

#define F_CPU 1E6
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <avr/io.h>
#include <math.h>
#include <util/delay.h>
#include "lcd.h"
#include "lcd.c"

const unsigned long int primeMax=pow(2,25);
unsigned long int primeLast=2;
unsigned long int primeTest=0;
unsigned int primeDivy=0;

void wait(void);
void init(void);
void updateDisplay(void);
char *toString(unsigned long int);

int main(void){
    init();
    short maybePrime;
    unsigned int i;
    //for(primeTest=3;primeTest<sqrt(primeMax);primeTest=primeTest+2){
    for(primeTest=2;primeTest<sqrt(primeMax);primeTest++){
        maybePrime=1;
        //for (i=3;i<=(sqrt(primeTest)+1);i=i+2){
        for (i=2;i<=(sqrt(primeTest)+1);i++){
            primeDivy=i;
            updateDisplay();
            if (primeTest%primeDivy==0){maybePrime=0;break;}
        }
        if (maybePrime==1){primeLast=primeTest;updateDisplay();}
    }
    return 0;
}

void updateDisplay(void){
    lcd_gotoxy(12,0);lcd_puts(toString(primeLast));
    lcd_gotoxy(5,1);lcd_puts(toString(primeTest));
    lcd_gotoxy(16,1);lcd_puts(toString(primeDivy));
    //_delay_ms(1000);
    return;
}

void init(void){
    lcd_init(LCD_DISP_ON);
    //lcd_clrscr();
    lcd_puts("PRIME IDENTIFICATIONn");
    //lcd_puts("MAX PRIME: ");
    //lcd_puts(toString(primeMax));
    //lcd_puts("nsquare root: ");
    //lcd_puts(toString(sqrt(primeMax)+1));
    _delay_ms(2000);
    lcd_clrscr();
    lcd_puts("LAST PRIME:n");
    lcd_puts("TRY:");
    lcd_gotoxy(14,1);lcd_puts("/");
    return;
}

char *toString(unsigned long int x){
    char s1[8];
    ltoa(x,s1,10);
    return s1;
}

In other news, I’ve seen the new Star Trek movie and found it enjoyable. My wife liked it too (perhaps more than I did). Here’s a relevant news story I found informative: