Olimex has launched an update to its RP2040pc computer board with the RP2350pc board powered by a Raspberry Pi RP2350B MCU coupled with 16MB flash, 8MB PSRAM, and offering HDMI/DVI video output, four USB 2.0 ports, and an audio Codec for retro computer emulation and education.
Other changes include a microSD card slot for additional storage and an on-board stereo audio codec and amplifier for Line-in and headphone audio jacks, and left and right speakers. That also means the two buzzers from the RP2040 board are gone. The design is now closer to a proper retro computer board.
RP2350pc computer board specifications:
- Microcontroller – Raspberry Pi RP2350B
- CPU
- Dual-core Arm Cortex-M33 @ 150 MHz with Arm Trustzone, Secure boot OR
- Dual-core RISC-V Hazard3 @ 150 MHz
- Either two cores can be used.
- Memory – 520 KB on-chip SRAM
- Package – QFN-80
- CPU
- Memory – 8MB SPRAM
- Storage
- 16MB SPI Flash
- MicroSD card slot
- Video Output – HDMI/DVI port
- Audio
- On-board ES8311 stereo audio codec and amplifier
- 3.5mm Line-In jack
- 3.5mm headphone jack
- Left and right speaker connectors
- USB
- 4x USB host ports
- USB-C connector for programming
- USB-C connector for power supply
- Expansion – 2x UEXT connectors
- Misc
- Power switch
- Programming/Execution switch
- RP2350 reset and programming bootloader button
- Power Supply
- 5V via USB-C port
- LiPo battery charger
- Dimensions – 85 x 65 mm (four mounting holes with 3.3mm diameter)
We’re told that the USB host ports support USB flash drives, USB gamepads (Apple Joystick emulator), and USB keyboards. Olimex says the RP2350pc board is designed to run the Reload emulator to emulate Apple ][, Apple ][e, Oric-Atmos, Pravetz, and Puldin 8-bit computers. It’s also possible to play thousands of Total Replay 5.2 games on the platform. Another project that will work on the Raspberry Pi RP2350B board is Paul Robson’s RP2350pc user library to allow compilers and OS to be created with a unified, BIOS-like API.
Like its predecessor, the RP2350pc “all-in-one computer board” is open-source hardware, and you’ll find PDF and KiCad hardware design files, BoM, and Gerber files on GitHub. There’s also a PDF user manual with a few more details about the hardware and software.
Olimex RP2350pc board is sold for 24.95 Euros on the company’s online store.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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Could this be made compatible with MiSTer SNAC adapters?
Probably. I haven’t written any Gamepad code yet (apart from getting the raw HID data).
From experience can mean that each new USB Game controller device or subtype needs its own driver as the protocols can be different. There is no commonality I think at any level (say 3 buttons and 1 D-Pad/Joystick which would cover most things)
It looks to me like the SNAC is a universal adaptor for real controllers (?), and if so it will present itself to Mister in some packet format, so it should be possible to decode that format easily enough by just watching the packets.
There are so many controllers it is difficult to cover all of them. You have everything from Atari 2600 1 button 1 joystick to umpteen buttons, analogue sticks and so on and so on.
wow…RAM upgrade is the best, so now can it do picoVGA so that able to increase VGA resolution 640×480 to 32bit…. ? i hope so.
No. I have (currently) 640 pixels with 256 colours, 16 colours, 4 greyscale and monochrome and 160 and 320 pixels with 256 colours.
The hardware can actually physically do 640x480x32 bit but it’s more memory than there is on the board. You’d have to ‘generate it on the fly’ rather than store the whole image.I *think* the PSRAM won’t work the the HSTX.
Waveshare also offers an updated version of its board with an HDMI connector – https://www.waveshare.com/wiki/RP2350-PiZero?aff_id=cnxsoft
On aliexpress item 1005007349367368 has a RP2350-PiZero variant.