He probably used off-the-shelf RAM chips, after all, RAM is not part of the CPU.
In the early 70s, before the internet, even finding the information needed would be a fair amount of work.
I learned how flip flops worked, adders, and registers in college, and that could be extended to an ALU. But still, that was in college, not high school.
I've read some books on computer history, and they are frustratingly vague about how the machines actually worked. I suspect the authors didn't actually know. Sort of the like the books on the history of Apple that gush over Woz's floppy disk interface, but no details.
In the early 70s, before the internet, even finding the information needed would be a fair amount of work.
I learned how flip flops worked, adders, and registers in college, and that could be extended to an ALU. But still, that was in college, not high school.
I've read some books on computer history, and they are frustratingly vague about how the machines actually worked. I suspect the authors didn't actually know. Sort of the like the books on the history of Apple that gush over Woz's floppy disk interface, but no details.