John Peterson was taking Digital Hardware Lab classes at the University of Utah. In the spring quarter of 2012, the individual lab project was to design and build a working computer with serial I/O and a lights and switches front panel. A unique facility of the hardware lab classes was The Suitcase issued to each of the students. It contained everything needed to prototype some complex designs, but it had to be returned at the end of the quarter.
The assignment specification is given in
http://www.saccade.com/writing/projects/CS428/PDF/ComputerSpecification.pdfHis system started working about 10 minutes before the quarter officially ended. To quote him :-
Quote:
...After five iterations of the test program (over a period of about two minutes) the CPU was powered off and torn apart. It probably has the record for the shortest operational life of any computer system in history.
http://www.saccade.com/writing/projects/CS428/WireWrap.html#Comp(Schematics of his computer
http://www.saccade.com/writing/projects/CS428/PDF/ComputerSchematics.pdf and his Lab notes
http://www.saccade.com/writing/projects/CS428/PDF/ComputerLabNotes.pdf)