Robin Edwards (electrotrains at AtariAge) has been at it again, and recently starting talking about an entirely new version of the 8-bit UNO Cart, only this time based upon a Chinese clone of the Raspberry Pi Pico. On this go around it has no removable media such as what the original UNO Cart utilized via its micro-SD Card, and instead it stores its files to an onboard 16MB of non-volatile Flash RAM, updated via USB.
Note: The Chinese Pico Clone is not a drop in for a real Pi Pico, having a different pin-out, as well as more I/O and more Flash RAM. The clone was required for this A8 version.
So I started thinking (always a dangerous thing), and decided to make something akin to an All-In-One daughter board module for the 576NUC+ project which would incorporate this new Pico Cart idea, along with several other very useful peripherals.
And here's a sneak peek as to what that may look like...
Note: The Chinese Pico Clone is not a drop in for a real Pi Pico, having a different pin-out, as well as more I/O and more Flash RAM. The clone was required for this A8 version.
So I started thinking (always a dangerous thing), and decided to make something akin to an All-In-One daughter board module for the 576NUC+ project which would incorporate this new Pico Cart idea, along with several other very useful peripherals.
And here's a sneak peek as to what that may look like...
Currently I've assigned the moniker RPSX to it, which stands for the 4 main aspects contained within this module.
The Pico Cart does have ATR capability, but just like it's UNO Cart cousin this has some limitations, such as not being able to launch a CAR and an ATR at the same time. So it rules out doing something like launching Basic XE as a virtual banked cartridge and still being able to load and save Basic XE source files to and from the built-in file space. Hence the reason for also incorporating the SDrive.
BTW, the default 576NUC+ platform has absolutely no inherent banked cartridge support what-so-ever.
And while I was at it, I decided to give it the full 1MB of RAM, as well as a battery backed real time clock, making this a very well rounded upgrade for the 576NUC+.
Now on the surface it may look like I have this all figured out, but I presently don't have a clue as to what I/O pin goes to what on the Pico board until such time that the A8Pico Cart documentation gets released to the public, something that I have no idea of when that may happen.
Anyway stay tuned, and hopefully we'll see this project continue to come together.
- Michael
- R = R-Time 8
- P = Pico Cart
- S = SDrive
- X = XRAM (1024K extended RAM)
The Pico Cart does have ATR capability, but just like it's UNO Cart cousin this has some limitations, such as not being able to launch a CAR and an ATR at the same time. So it rules out doing something like launching Basic XE as a virtual banked cartridge and still being able to load and save Basic XE source files to and from the built-in file space. Hence the reason for also incorporating the SDrive.
BTW, the default 576NUC+ platform has absolutely no inherent banked cartridge support what-so-ever.
And while I was at it, I decided to give it the full 1MB of RAM, as well as a battery backed real time clock, making this a very well rounded upgrade for the 576NUC+.
Now on the surface it may look like I have this all figured out, but I presently don't have a clue as to what I/O pin goes to what on the Pico board until such time that the A8Pico Cart documentation gets released to the public, something that I have no idea of when that may happen.
Anyway stay tuned, and hopefully we'll see this project continue to come together.
- Michael
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