BARNDLES (The Blender Computer)

BARNDLES is a crazy computing project that involves designing an ISA, microarchitecture, assembler, and software tools in order to build a functioning computer in Blender, a 3D modeling software that was never meant to run such a thing.

What does BARNDLES stand for?

• Blender
• Algorithmic
• Rendering and
• Node
• Driven
• Logic
• Emulation
• System

The processor is designed to operate in Blender’s shader node editor, a forward processing and Turing complete component of the software. Memory writeback is conducted by mapping the memory image onto a plane and rendering it using Blender’s Cycles rendering engine.

The process is goofy, but it actually works. A demonstration can be seen in the video below.

While this project was anything but practical, it was an AMAZING exercise in outside-the-box thinking and technical design. I had the opportunity to experience the full breadth of CPU design including ISA design, microarchitecture implementation, assembler implementation, and thorough project documentation.

Below is a sample of the ISA documentation I created to describe the microprocessor’s functionality. The completed project (including the Blender files and ISA documents) can be found on in the project’s GitHub repo.