Wow your dinner guests with a massive Megaprocessor

Professional hostess tip: always have something cool to show your guests. Pictures from a recent trip often work, but sometimes people want to touch, feel, and experience something IRL. James Newman, a man from the UK, has begun creating not only a conversation-starter but something genuinely striking in his living room. Newman is building a 45-feet wide, 6-feet tall Megaprocessor.

Here are some quick stats on the Megaprocessor, but seriously, please feign surprise if you're ever at his house for dinner:

• 16-bit architecture
• Seven registers
• 256 bytes of RAM
• 3,500 LED lights
• 14,000 individual transistors
• $60,000 spent

Newman's been documenting his progress on his blog, megaprocessor.com. He says he decided to build the machine because it's difficult for people to see inside their computers, and the Megaprocessor lets us zoom out easily and follow data through the LED lights.

James Newman

• ViaHackADay
• SourceMegaprocessor.com