My own retro computer system
Posted: Mon May 04, 2015 10:46 am
I've started a project that tries to recapture my love for the old home computer concept, where there is a main unit that is expandable via cards. Like a cross between an Apple 2 and PC/XT.
I've designed and built an expansion bus with I2C, SPI, power and slot-select on each slot. 8 pins for each slot. This expansion bus is connected to a MicroPython card. Each card has a 256-byte I2C-eeprom for storing of parameters and type of the card. Plug and play.
The MicroPython card makes it very easy to prototype code, and it REALLY feels like in the 80s: just flip the power-switch and start coding!
I started experimenting on a bread-board, and so far I have also soldered an expansion-bus (4 slots) and one SRAM-card. Future plans are sound and graphics that probably will be based on cheap AVRs.
I'm making all this just for the fun of it, and have no plans to do anything practical with it.
I've designed and built an expansion bus with I2C, SPI, power and slot-select on each slot. 8 pins for each slot. This expansion bus is connected to a MicroPython card. Each card has a 256-byte I2C-eeprom for storing of parameters and type of the card. Plug and play.
The MicroPython card makes it very easy to prototype code, and it REALLY feels like in the 80s: just flip the power-switch and start coding!
I started experimenting on a bread-board, and so far I have also soldered an expansion-bus (4 slots) and one SRAM-card. Future plans are sound and graphics that probably will be based on cheap AVRs.
I'm making all this just for the fun of it, and have no plans to do anything practical with it.