The PicoMEM is an amazing software defined ISA card

[@adriansdigitalbasement]

It turns out that there is already a TSR for the PicoMem that allows you to switch floppy disks while booted into DOS. The TSR was part of the utility package on the Github repo. Freddy is also working on enhancing the Wifi features in the BIOS to provide more feedback than the current "no feedback" approach. The thing continues to improve!

[@troytaylor623]

I looked on FreddyV's github but didn't see the utility package you are referring to. I grabbed the floppy disk image sv86-720.img but didn't see any prg in the image that looked right.

[@freddyvretrozone2849]

@@troytaylor623 Hi, It is not via a driver, Press (left) Ctrl Shift F2 to change disks. It is also explained in the GiuHub doc

[@Inject0r]

Thanks for the informational video. I’m sure about what I’ll be buying this summer! Perhaps your “communicational lines” towards Freddy are a bit shorter than mine, so could you check if it’s possible to/works to put two (or more) RP2040’s on one card and make them work together, just to make sure they’re able to manage when handling those extra MHz-es, one Hz at a time. “RP2040-SLI” if you will. I’d love to see that! :)

[@DropDeadFrederick]

It'd be great if there was a display that'd connect to the picomem VIA the i2c interface that'd give you an LCD screen with some buttons that'd let you swap disks that way. Mount the LCD screen either in a 5 1/4" drive bay or some other location where it's easily accessible. Not everything plays well with TSR applications so having the option to have a separate LCD controller you could hook up would be great.

[@troytaylor623]

Hey Adrian, I just got my picomem last night and was trying to sort out why it wasn't saving my BIOS (didn't have the SD card in it.) So thanks for this timely video. I looked on the github page and couldn't find the TSR you were talking about. I also looked in the HDD Images and sv86-720.img floppy image and could find the TSR prg there either. Can you give some more info on where that TSR prg is for swapping floppy images?

[@ronmaxwell]

The irony is that the Pico is way more powerful than the computer itself. But, seriously, this is an awesome card. Great idea. 😊

[@absolutetruth9975]

spoke my thought. 10000x faster perhaps

[@bmobert]

It's like attaching a 1000hp inline engine to a 10hp outboard motor to make the outboard run better. 😂

[@cristianoo2]

​@@bmobertno, to make it start turning left and right again, because the original driving wheel system was broken 😂

[@douggale5962]

It would be so fun to make a little 3D accelerator that uses DMA to copy offload software rendered frames to VGA video memory. It could DMA the render command list from RAM too, 10MB/sec would allow for ~150fps @ 320x200, 8bpp so it would be reasonable to keep up. Using 8MHz 3 cycles per 16 bits.

[@annebaisden8717]

Yup. Same goes for the VIC and SID replacements for the C64 you can get these days. I like to call this the "Spaceship of Theseus" problem, where at what point do modern improvements erase the idea of it being something old-fashioned? This is also explored in Babylon 5 (of all places) where a motorcycle restoration project was given a Minbari power supply instead of a gas-burning engine - does this defeat the purpose of the work or not?

[@falksweden]

Imagine if we 40 years ago was told that in the year 2024 people would still produce hardware new for our 40 years old computers, and that they would not only be totally insane but also very cheap. I'm still amazed by the amount of projects for our retro computers.

[@ericpaul4575]

And also contain a processor that is more powerful than the one on the main computer.

[@jacquelineliu2641]

@arnolduk123 Windows 1.0 was released in 1985. "40 years ago" was 1984. Windows 95 wouldn't come out until 10 years after Windows 1.0. So "people would be surprised about Windows not using year as version name" is nonsense.

[@adriansdigitalbasement]

@@ericpaul4575 And even with that, the RP2040 is only just fast enough (being overclocked over 2x stock clock speed) to properly talk on an ISA bus at 8mhz, something any Intel CPU even from the 70s can do with ease. :-)

[@der.Schtefan]

Nothing you said would have been a surprise. In the 80s, vintage collection was already a thing, people would romantisice about the 50s and old radios, cars, machines in general

[@shemlesh]

@arnolduk123 quite a few people, a lot of experimental operating system research in the late 80s, early 90s was around the idea of handling the transition from big iron and minicomputers, to microcomputers, to 1 user: many computers. Amoeba and Sprite were functional examples, building on the decreasing price of compute to turn networks of computers into a single system image from a users perspective

[@Null_Experis]

There's a huge potential for profit with this if this guy tools this thing for Industrial use and offers an ISA card for old industrial machines that can easily ass remote management, file sharing over wifi, and other features to interface with more modern equipment without disrupting the old highly specialized machines that some places still use. I can imagine old milling machines suddenly having access to off-site storage and backups, allowing their IT to remote into their control computers, or even allowing floor staff to access and start the machine remotely with their phones.

[@briannickel5131]

Who doesn't want ass remote management?

[@c1ph3rpunk]

@@briannickel5131HR is calling, they need to speak with you. 😂😂

[@adriansdigitalbasement]

Indeed -- all those old CNC milling machine and what not using old DOS stuff could totally use this for remote control. Pretty epic!

[@Null_Experis]

@@briannickel5131 I'm not even sure what I was typing to get that typo, but I like it.

[@tjallingdalheuvel126]

I'd say you pressed a s instead of d and 'autocorrect' added a second one.

[@JohnVance]

On the one hand, this feels a lot like cheating. But on the other hand, it’s amazing to see the vintage computing scene so active and healthy that something like this can even exist. Really love it.

[@c1ph3rpunk]

As old hardware gets more and more rare, and more and more costly, we’re going to have to go emulated/virtualized along with that more and more.

[@basicforge]

Not cheating. We would all have bought this card if it existed back in the day.

[@fierelier7691]

@@basicforge but if we bought this card back in the day, it would have way less processing power, and would have been more expensive. if the raspberry pi pico had display out, it could just emulate the entire computer. i personally prefer the approach of separate cards built for one or two purposes, using with simple ICs and some low level firmware. this certainly wouldn't be the way i'd go for my builds, but i do agree with the top comment, it's nice this is helping vintage computers work today.

[@ErazerPT]

@@fierelier7691 You mean like the FabGL VGA32? That they sell for peanuts? ;)

[@MaddTheSane]

In a way, I kinda wish the same was true for Classic Mac OS computers.

[@edller1082]

That is amazing. A small detail about when you entered the bbs and said there was someone else logged from South Carolina. In fact, it said Criciuma, SC which is not South Carolina, this SC stands for Santa Catarina, a Brazilian State. The Criciuma is a city in the State of Santa Catarina, Brazil.

[@riz94107]

So glad to see the PicoMEM BIOS setup screen keeps up the tradition of misspellings

[@RetroTechChris]

It's an easy fix 😂. I've noticed a few here and there and flagged them to Freddy.

[@danieltaon]

Where?

[@Zeem4]

@@danieltaon "Extention" is one of them, should be spelled "extension".

[@oliverer3]

​@@RetroTechChris Aww they feel so era appropriate though :P

[@RetroTechChris]

@@oliverer3 LOL! I bet FreddyV can put them back if you want them!

[@krzbrew]

That's amazing how retro hardware enthusiasts make new quality of life improvements to decades old hardware. Very nice!

[@MSGRetired]

Thanks for the plug of my BBS ! I just set it up a couple weeks ago. I was a sysop back in the late 80's early 90's and decided to fire up a BBS again .. Had a few people join the board from you showing it in this video. Thanks

[@adriansdigitalbasement]

NICE!

[@pazsion]

i loved the roleplaying games and muds. the early mmorpgs 🤓🥰 gorgeous ansii art sometimes as you explore and stuff.

[@rnts08]

What MUDs are you running? I'd love to get back into hellbound development. I used to be a demi and made tons of dungeons way back when.

[@Scoopta]

Hmmmm, you should add IPv6 AAAA records

[@Dynamit008]

​@@Scooptayou are a summing that he even has access to IPv6, many don't have still access to IPv6. But me personally has 3 big ranges so it's silly.

[@ctrlaltrees]

I've been playing with one of these and it really is a total game changer for these old PCs. If you're reading this - get one!

[@Colaholiker]

Not going to lie - it is epic that there is still a community that is dedicated to keeping all kinds of old computers running so that people can either relive their memories from way back in the day or that younger generations can experience what computing was like at that time. But regardless, it makes me chuckle that you basically plop in a card that has a computer on board which in itself has orders of magnitude more "computing oomph" than the original computer it gets plugged into. Even being on the very low end of the ARM spectrum, that little Cortex M0+ on the Pi Pico dwarfs an 8088 or 8086 no problem...At the same time, seeing the price of the Pi Pico, compared to what a PC cost when it was current tech, shows what giant leaps in development happened since.

[@JH-pe3ro]

There's actually two things that are really interesting about having the option of a new board with an MCU - first, that hobbyists can make new add-on cards without much difficulty now, and second - that for any given computing architecture, we can upgrade it to the level of that card. That removes any vintage limitations - the capability of all the computers is all "at the same level" now, limited just by development time. You can make this kind of upgrade for a PC, or an Apple II, or an Amiga, or anything else that you could figure out a way of shoehorning in, and you can make upgrades that copy the capabilities associated with one to the others. It inverts the usual thing of having to make software drivers that deal with hardware: a piece of "smart hardware" like this can act as the driver for something like a USB mouse.

[@k4be.]

And, the module contains a WIFI module which itself likely uses even more powerful CPU inside.

[@freddyvretrozone2849]

@@k4be. Exact :) The Wifi module is faster than the RP2040, like graphic card are faster than the PC. The important is that the Pico is not used to accelerate the PC CPU. It adds options that were possible on these PC : HDD, Floppy, Network, Adlib. All this were used on 8088 PC back in the time.

[@chitlitlah]

This thought crossed my mind a couple of years ago when I bought an Atari 800XL with a FujiNet device. The FujiNet is just a relatively tiny device that plugs into the back of the computer and seems like just a peripheral that's helping the computer out a little like an extra hand on a person, but really it's taking data from a network or an SD card and running circles around the Atari with its processing power to dumb things down to a level that the Atari can easily handle. It's more like the Atari is a peripheral for the FujiNet simply for the purpose of giving it a more nostalgic interface rather than simply using an emulator.

[@alysdexia]

@@freddyvretrozone2849not faster, dolt, but swifter

[@networkg]

In addition to being fantastic, the design of the setup utility is just beyond great. Superlatives aside, all of us in the retro community owe a debt of thanks to developers who have taken inexpensive modern hardware, like the pico, and opened an entire world of possibilities.

[@idio-syncrasy]

I love your joy and enthusiasm Adrian.

[@rickoneill4343]

Humans are amazing. I can't even begin to imagine how complex this was to create.

[@rigues]

Adrian, for the record, the other BBS user was in Brazil. Criciuma is a city in Santa Catarina (also abbreviated SC).

[@rghisi]

I had to go back and pause the video, couldn't believe it! 😂 What are the odds!?

[@ducasp]

Probably using a MSX 8 bit computer and the UNAPI Telnet client ❤

[@ultrametric9317]

This is cool. Nice to see convergence like this. In the day I wanted to know every last aspect of the PC. I got too busy to do that. I'm amazed at the detailed knowledge necessary to implement this idea! PS, the right words for LIM (Lotus-Intel-Microsoft) memory is "expanded". You can't get "extended" memory on less than a 286. EMM386 has options for dividing memory into expanded and extended memory side by side. The "/noems" switch prevents the default allotment. The earliest essential use of extended memory was in Netware 286. There was an DOS executable that did nothing but switch to protected mode and set up a large flat model address space for the OS to inhabit. Actual memory protection was not required and not used. That was essentially the birth of the practical LAN.

[@lyfandeth]

A Raspberry as a universal ISA card...stunning, simply stunning.

[@the_kombinator]

TBH these machines were not meant to run for more than what, 4-5 years? I have a basement full of 80s and 90s PCs that work fully, even an NES and a Genesis (which is on now, we're taking stages in beating Sonic 2 lol). I can't seem to recall any newer consoles or computers working for even 10 years.

[@krnlg]

I think theres a place both for cards like this that do everything by basically adding a whole faster computer inside, and recreations using modern parts to do things the same way real vintage expansion cards did it. Its great having cards like this for ease of use (and honestly this looks *great* especially the BIOS menu!) but cards with a bunch of TTL and whatever are great too because thats all part of retro computing!

[@gdavids57]

Just a slight correction. SparkFun developed the QWIIC connector.

[@tony359]

What an amazing card! I can’t wait to see the future development of it! Thanks for showing it to us!

[@gilbert1975nf]

38:19 - that is no South Carolina. Criciuma SC it's a city here in Brazil, I am pretty sure of it!😊

[@sreenathbh2610]

I bought a couple of RP Picos a couple of years ago with the intention to create revolution. Did nothing with them. Very nice to see these gadgets using the RP2040. Wow!!

[@JenniferinIllinois]

It's crazy what people are coming up with to keep old computers running. I love it!

[@riz94107]

Tired: it works perfectly Wired: it Just Freakin Works!

[@rommix0]

It works alright. (eats Snickers bar) IT FRICKIN WORKS!!

[@nickwallette6201]

(In Olde English accent) "Your soundcard works perfectly."

[@lucasbracher]

@Adrian, at 38:19, it's not South Carolina, it's Criciúma, state of Santa Catarina in Brasil. Thank you for the video, it took me more than 30 years ago.

[@aaronperl]

That is really cool. I personally have no use for it, but I love learning about these things. Nice work to the developer/designer of this thing, keep up the good work. Back in the late 90s I thought it would be cool to collect some old machines once I was finished with school and living on my own ... but I realized I probably wouldn't actually end up doing anything with them, and as computers have generally become so much easier to deal with (no IRQs, networking by default, USB, faster CPUs, etc), I've had less and less interest in doing it. But I do love living vicariously through your videos.

[@barjammar]

Thanks Adrian. I ordered one. Also, I’m glad you have recovered your health.

[@insanelydigitalvids]

What's so great about this "New Tech for Old Tech" is that it enhances the Old Tech to work in a modern environment without detracting too much from the retro experience --- and makes retro computing more affordable by bypassing the high prices of rare cards and peripherals. (No wonder Adrian is so enthusiastic about this project!)

[@AnonymousFreakYT]

GDI! _YOU'RE_ the one who bought that Model D out from under me! That setup is literally what my first computer growing up was. Although ours was dual-floppy when bought, I paid for a hard drive+controller from lawn mowing/babysitting money. We even had that same monitor.

[@ninjamaster3453]

I had an AT 286 12mhz. My first mod was saving up and adding a sound blaster card.

[@wocko1]

This card is just awesome to say the least! It blows me away how versatile that the Pi Pico really is, and it's a great way to keep these old computers going as well as unlock new capabilities such as WiFi, etc.

[@lougarou007]

Thank you for explaining so clearly. I can't wait to try the picomem

[@Cherijo78]

The one improvement id like to see is a header to be able to use an external or front panel/bay mountable card reader. The big advantage of using an XTIDE and GoTek in my current 5160 is having the usb and cf card ports mounted right in the 2 right drive bays of my machine for access (the half height 32mb RLL HDD that still works and 360k floppy are on the left). Getting to the back of the machine to change out an SD card would be a serious PITA where I have my 5160 set up. I like the idea of this card though, and might consider it in future for another machine! Good job!

[@Dwedit]

The term "PSRAM" refers to Psuedo-static RAM, meaning that it is DRAM that can refresh itself without external refresh circuitry, and be simply wired onto a board like it was SRAM. It does not necessarily mean that it's accessed over an SPI bus. But on this device, it looks like it is indeed on an SPI bus.

[@summerlaverdure]

that's absolutely incredible! 😍 so cool to see the retro computer community keeping old machines alive with things like this. Excellent video Adrian, thank you for making it!

[@douro20]

I may look into one of these for my PS/2 Model 25- when I get the thing back together. NTP support would be really nice in the future. I don't remember ANSI.SYS being terribly slow- at least in DOS 4.01 which is what I had on my first PC. My 5150 is currently running PC-DOS 2000.

[@Olveron]

I ordered a picomem. My XT has a hard card and two floppy drives, I just don't have a system other than my XT with a 5 in floppy drive. I have been stuck. I love that I can finally replace my hard card, and get files onto the system. Looking forward to playing with this isa card.

[@rockykorea5711]

This is an important parallel between new and old technology that is instructive for all of us

[@JohnSmith-iu8cj]

Watching this video from start to finish shows how good this is

[@wysoft]

Neat to see a Leading Edge here. It was my first XT clone PC when I was a kid - though I had the older Model M. It was enough to pirate a bunch of CGA games from my friend whose dad had nearly every PC game in existence going back to the original IBM PC days. When I got a newer 486, I took the Model M and threw it out of the third story window of my parents' house onto the driveway to see what would happen. It landed flat with a huge smack, nothing fell off or exploded out of it. I brought it back inside, hooked it up, and it still worked - except for the hard drive. That thing was pure steel like a tank, like so many PCs in those days.

[@TotiTolvukall]

This was a happy video in my feed :) Thanks! I managed to watch only 1/10th of the video before jumping to conclusions and ordering a PicoMEM of my own. And then I ordered the Adlib emulator too. So I managed to spend a truckload of money. Here's hanging my hopes high :) The machine I'm aiming at putting it into is a very special one. An IBM PC 5150 with some exceptional history (which will be shared at the right time) Thanks for a very interesting and useful video!

[@communalnoodle1356]

Adrian, this is an amazing rindown on this card - grat explanation of the advantages and dissadvantages. Its great to see it in use and see how itnworks. 😊

[@kooziesan]

Without any further ado...I'm still waiting for the "let's get right to it!"

[@adriansdigitalbasement]

It's like an if-then statement that never gets met. You're just waiting forever ;-)

[@horusfalcon]

Good to see you with the Leading Edge Model D again, and I can't thing of a better reason that another card making retro possible without pain.

[@DoctorOnkelap]

Hi Adrian, thanks for the tip about this product. I will use it to resurect my old Tulip SX Compact 2 which was my first computer. It is actually a Dutch made 386sx and is still working except for the 3,5" floppy. Replacing that floppy drive with others I have (I remember even trying that when it first failed). Would you happen to know why other floppy drives simply refuse to work on a 386sx?

[@electrohoard]

Adrian, one note: when you connected to bbs the other user connected was not from South Carolina, but actually from Criciuma, Santa Catarina - Brazil hahaha Regards from Brazil ;)

[@BandanazX]

So cool. Would like to see something like this adapted to the PCjr... maybe with a DMA controller thrown in for good measure.

[@volvo09]

What a cool device, I love what people are doing to keep old computers alive, even if this is the engine equivelant of connecting a 1000hp dragster engine to your 80 hp cars motor to use as it's starter 😂

[@yyzkevin416]

Maybe a closer analogy would be upgrading the radio in your classic car for bluetooth instead of AM radio. Your car engine is unchanged. Maybe some new tires for safer traction etc.

[@jeroenvanlieshout4848]

Just ordered one as I was still looking for a integrated network solution. Very nice demonstration about the capabilities and hopefully it improves over time.

[@AS-ly3jp]

Is there a Board with a RaspberryPi, which you can put in a XT/AT System, wich allows you to use Keyboard, Diskrive, all the Ports on the Backside and Harddrive like the PiStorm or Vampire Project for Amiga? That would be cool!

[@kpanic23]

Maybe I'm strange, but I like loud fans and loud whirring hard drives on my vintage computers... Makes them sound like a living beast!

[@subynut]

It's wild what that little Raspberry Pi Pico is capable of! Super neat!

[@ed.puckett]

How frickin cool is that? Pretty frickin cool!!

[@Dorff_Meister]

So much MSDOS coming back to me. It's been so long. Fun video and an absolutely amazing card. If I ever wanted to get back into DOS, this would be the way to go.

[@ThinklikeTesla]

I once hand-built an ISA POST-code reaader board. How far we've come!

[@johanlaurasia]

I watched the majority of this video before I realized that you're wearing AJ's Forgotten Machines t-shirt. AJ is part of our CoCo community at Glenside, and he's a really great guy. Looking for ward to seeing you at VCFMW.. only 112 days (but who's counting!!)

[@shmehfleh3115]

That thing's pretty cool. I hope a 16-bit ISA slot version gets released at some point. I don't personally care about XT-class machines; they're too slow and limited to do much with. But a lot of those features would be really handy on an 386 or newer, especially one with limited room for ISA cards like my Toshiba T5200.

[@k7a]

Especially if they can add a CD-ROM emu where you can load CD images on virtual drives like they've done here with floppy and HDD. Man that would be cool. Absolute epitome would be an easy way to connect full powered Pi for MT-32 midi emulation. Feels like the sky's the limit on this whole concept.

[@jlmassir]

How to make your old XT work again? Just plug a Cray 2 supercomputer on the ISA bus!

[@massimopessino7606]

Just ordered one! Messing around with a Zenith eazypc that was supposedly not expandable and that uses XTA HD interface. Turns out that the expansion port is just a pin version of Isa bus. Will see what we can get out of it with the PicoMem all in one!

[@thomas-i5o7h]

Very interesting little board. I must confess that this is the first time I have ever heard of it.

[@oturgator]

This can be exciting if there would be a PCMCIA version of it for all the HP 100LX, 200LX and all the other 8086 palmtops out there.

[@henrikgustav2294]

It is not possible to boot from pcmcia right? Option rom thing

[@oturgator]

@@henrikgustav2294 I am not sure, my SD to PCMCIA adapter is capable of booting from it, can not speak for all versions of these adapters. Yet, there are PCMCIA floppies that most Toshiba Libretto computers boot from, also let’s not forget the PCMCIA CD-ROM drives which are bootable, that is how I installed OS/2 Warp to my Gateway 486DX2-66

[@Estaran]

For years I was looking for such an "all in one" solution for the Schneider (Amstrad) PC1512 I inherited after my father sadly passed away in 2021. This is a very nostalgic machine for me as this was the first time, I ever played videogames together with my dad, while he used this PC mostly to program in Turbo Pascal etc. Should also be a nifty solution for backing up all those files that are for sure soon lost to time because of those aging floppys and floppy drives (the PC1512 I have here only came with dual 5 1/4" floppy drives and no HDD).

[@freddyvretrozone2849]

I develop the PicoMEM with the PC1512 on mind it was also my first computer.

[@Estaran]

@@freddyvretrozone2849 Amazing! I'll hope there will be a seller located in Europe soon, as sadly importing one from the US is quite expensive because of import duties and shipping.

[@eformance]

I don't think this card "obsoletes" a bunch of cards, what it does is make these capabilities available via modern components. The biggest problem I see with "Adlib" cards is getting the sound chips. If the Pico can emulate the sound chip, and it can emulate the 5v chips of the XT IDE, and it can emulate other peripherals, all while using a software designed "hardware stack", that's great. It would be interesting to see someone emulate an XT from scratch with video support on a Pico, then maybe tie multiple picos together to make a modern hardware emulator? Yeah, at that point it's not far removed from Dos Box, but it's still hardware and that scratches an itch that Dos Box doesn't.

[@DarrenCoull]

The RP2040 is truly a versatile device - I don't have an old PC for this, but I DO have an Atari STE and am using a device called the SideCART - maybe a future video idea? Plugged into the ST's cartridge port, it does things such as RTC, floppy (even loading from internet) and HDD emulation. Like this device, the SideCART is still in (very) active development. Worth checking out!

[@baronvonschnellenstein2811]

Thanks for this review / walk through, Adrian :) What I'm seeing here is an excellent "first stop" for an ISA card to put in a resurrected XT / AT and get it going. - A "Swiss Army Knife" ISA card that will get one out of most jams. Certainly a "must have" for those restoring XTs. I think those dedicated RAM expansion and controller replacement cards still have a use-case in terms of performance / compatibility.

[@KAPTKipper]

I'm building an A8PicoCart, a software defined Atari 8-bit cartridge. I've also seen SIDPICOs that use the PICO too. They are $3-5 for a 16MB version. Supercheap.

[@233kosta]

Oh man those original IBM XT keyboards are AMAZING!

[@NielsHeusinkveld]

Like the PicoGUS, this is cool, but does kinda blur the lines beteween real hardware and emulation. It does take some of the nostalgia out of it, compensating with convenience..

[@BuddhaPhi]

Thanks for the review, Adrian. The card is already backordered on Texelec as of 5/20/2024. So they maybe had a day or two supply.

[@dwincraig5350]

I used to work at a PC Shop in Alexandria Virginia and I used to repair and sell the Leading Edge Model D!

[@saifal-badri]

FreddyV rocks I must say, amazing job with the all in wonder card 😂 I snagged one immediately

[@freddyvretrozone2849]

Thanks, hope you will like it.

[@alexandrecouture2462]

What I'd really like for my IBM PC 5150 is a VGA card, because for now, I only have a CGA card and I use a composite to VGA adapter for display output.

[@mamayl8592]

Sounds awesome. Lots of cool things lately for retro tinkerers!

[@pperk97]

Hi Adrian, i use 2 the Pico cards in my Atari. The Sidecart device in the Atari ST has simular abilities. And the A8Pico for my 800XL. Great devices. Thanks for the video.

[@sleveee]

they're already back ordered. but i put in an order anyway! have a vendex turbo-888 that i could use this in.

[@alexgayer85]

Awesome card. I have a Tandy 1000 TX, a 286 with 8-bit ISA slots and it tops out at 768 k (640 conventional, 128 video) and I was wondering if this would push me past the 640k barrier in some version of DOS? Thanks!

[@troytaylor623]

Question Adrian. Is there any chance you could share some of your DOS HDD images?

[@davidellis6995]

Loved the "geekout-o-rama". Thanks. Flash back on the BBS.

[@jeromethiel4323]

I think the best use of this card would be for testing. Because you could drop it into the machine, and have it emulate a lot of stuff, meaning you only have to troubleshoot the MB or video card, or sound card, or whatever without worrying about other vintage parts not playing well with others.

[@laserspaceninja]

"It just freaking works" (TM)

[@terryknipe5497]

what a fantastic device! could breathe an insane amount of life into some of those XT class machines in tiny tiny cases that are incredibly difficult to expand - like my (sadly long-gone) childhood Amstrad PC20.

[@redgek]

rp2040 is basically 2x (dual core) i486 or even Pentiums, integer speed wise IIRC, so that card is like adding a whole computer into your computer to emulate stuff for it ;)

[@TheUAoB]

Slightly pedantic, but "high memory" in PC terms is the 64KiB of memory above 1MiB which can be utilised on 286+ due to the segmentation of memory allowing segment FFFF to map the 21st address line (A20) instead of wrapping back to the beginning. UMBs are just upper memory, above the arbitary RAM/IO boundary, which is usually *but not always* 640KiB, but below 1MiB.

[@uatafoc]

The person on the BBS wasn't from South Carolina, they were from Santa Catarina, Brazil. As Brazilians, we're like germs, we're everywhere, LOL!

[@DaveF.]

Nice - I just used a Raspberry Pi Nano (not pico) to had a second processor capability to me BBC master - it's truely incredible how quickly it can run now compared to the original CPU (and original 'Tube' second processors) - but the other constraints of the system still limit it - running DOS or CP/M on it (or Unix perhaps - it can now run PDP11 code) - would not be a fun experience. There's only so far you can go with this sort of stuff - maybe the next version of this could use a Pi Nano rather than the microcontroller based pico. I wonder if the SDcard is also a bottlenick for disk performance.

[@TheSulross]

was thinking a similar product could be made for the Apple II, but then I recalled that those cards sometimes required being placed into specific slots in order to work ☹

[@photovincent]

Just went for a quick look and now 45 minutes are gone. Fascinating stuff. I’m generally not a fan of using SBCs for emulation that overpower the system itself by many factors, but this does look like a neat piece of work and the bios interface makes for a great not-quite time period appropriate setup. Also, using wifi for networking beats running coax cable again and trying to plug that into a 21st century router 😇

[@XolaresTiberius]

Like to see a 16bit ISA version and PCI for 486/pentium era

[@jopawhand3190]

did you see an fmonster project? its a designed from scratch 8-bit isa sound card, contains opl, saa, sid, tandy, ay, etc on single board

[@az09letters92]

Now I want to see this with the new RP2350 (or Raspberry Pico 2 board)!

[@HappyQuailsLC]

Micro and mini usb dongles are plentiful on Amazon and there should be some USB OTG adapters, too.

[@JGreen-le8xx]

I think it's neat that people still make brand new items for ancient tech. The only sad/hilarious thing is, the new part is so much more powerful than the computer it's connected to is like getting an 18 wheeler to push a shopping cart....

[@LonSeidman]

I have nothing to put this card into but I still want one.

[@annieworroll4373]

This really has ridiculous potential. Lots of shenanigans you can potentially get up to if you put custom firmware on something like this or add hardware to available GPIO pins of the microcontroller. I need to get an XT and one of these things and see what can be done.

[@thiesenf]

To get rid of the "leftover" electricity I always press the power button after having pulled the power cord from my computer... that makes sure that all the caps have been drained of their current...

[@erickvond6825]

That's actually pretty awesome.

[@reiyv139]

Interesting that Adrian didn't notice that 'Extention' is always misspelled in the Setup Utility.

[@mattgarlets3939]

I learned how to type on a model D! We had a whole computer lab full of them with amber monochrome amber screens!

[@warlockd]

Ugh, believe it or not I have the same Leading Egde computer except the battery exploded and has alot of "been outside" corrosion. Haven't even spun up the hard drive till I get the imager. Its cleaned up but now I have to sit down and check all the caps and chips:P

[@bewilderbeestie]

One thing they should think about is doing a DOS IFS (like MSCDEX or one of the network drivers) which pushes the actual filesystem implementation onto the RP2040. It'll be less compatible than the existing BIOS emulation, but it would completely avoid the problems with big filesystems on DOS --- you could access the entire SD card in a single partition.

[@alexgayer85]

That’s a really cool card. Wish I still had an XT to play with! Hey, I just noticed I’m wearing my Forgotten Machines shirt today too! 😂