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August 27, 2025August 30, 2025 by Debashis Das - No Comments

Adafruit Fruit Jam – An RP2350 mini computer running classic Macintosh

The Adafruit Fruit Jam is a credit card-sized RP2350-powered mini computer that is designed to run classic Macintosh through the uMac emulator. It supports System 2.0 up to System 7.5.5, 720p video via DVI, audio, and USB keyboard and mouse. Built around the Raspberry Pi RP2350 MCU, the Fruit Jam board also features an ESP32-C6 wireless module and offers DVI output via the RP2350’s HSTX interface, USB-C for bootloading, a microSD card slot for storage, and an onboard TLV320DAC3100 I2S audio DAC for stereo headphones and a mono speaker. There’s also a 16-pin GPIO header, NeoPixels LEDs, tactile switches, and STEMMA QT and JST connectors for expansion. These features make this board suitable for retro emulation, educational projects, and lightweight standalone computing. Adafruit Fruit Jam 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 […]

August 27, 2025August 27, 2025 by Debashis Das - 1 Comment

FPGA-based Game Bub handheld console supports original Nintendo cartridge, wireless controllers (Crowdfunding)

Game Bub open source hardware FPGA retro emulation handheld

Game Bub is an open-source AMD Artix-7 FPGA and ESP32-S3-based handheld gaming console that supports Nintendo Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance cartridges. On top of that, it supports TV output via the Game Bub Dock and features Bluetooth for connecting wireless controllers. The device also features cartridge backup and restore functions through FlashGBX, letting users save files, dump ROMs, reflash writable carts, and even extract photos from the Game Boy Camera. The device supports direct ROM loading and the built-in rumble motor, accelerometer, gyroscope, and real-time clock ensure compatibility with games that rely on these peripherals. The device is housed in a transparent 90s-style enclosure, runs on a 3000 mAh battery for over 14 hours of gameplay, and weighs just 250 g, making it portable yet durable. Additionally, it can be used as an FPGA development board with its PMOD expansion slot and plenty of unused […]

August 21, 2025August 28, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Icepi Zero – A Lattice ECP5 FPGA board in Raspberry Pi Zero form factor (Crowdfunding)

Icepi Zero Lattice LFE5U FPGA board Raspberry Pi Zero form factor

The Icepi Zero is a compact Lattice ECP5 FPGA open-source hardware development board following the Raspberry Pi Zero form factor, and equipped with a microSD card slot, three USB-C ports, a GPDI mini connector for video output, and a 40-pin GPIO header. I was confused at first, since Debashis wrote about the Pico2-ice board a few days ago, but it’s a different design with an RP2350B MCU and a Lattice ICE40U5K FPGA with 5.3K LUTs. Made by Icy Electronics, the Icepi Zero is a pure FPGA board with 24K LUTs, 32MB SRAM, and 16MB QSPI flash that can be used for retro gaming/computer and general FPGA gateware experimentation. Icepi Zero specifications: FPGA – Lattice Semi ECP5U 24k LUTs 112 KiB of RAM 28x 18 x 18 Multipliers Memory – 256 Mbit (32 MB) of 166 MHz SDRAM Storage 128 Mbit (16 MB) of QSPI Flash microSD card slot Video Output […]

August 13, 2025August 13, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Arm neural technology to add AI acceleration to Arm GPUs, enable “Neural Super Sampling” for lower bandwidth/higher FPS

Arm neural technology will add dedicated neural/AI accelerators to Arm GPUs launched in 2026 and beyond to deliver up to 50% GPU workload reduction for mobile games and other graphics-intensive apps. The first application is called Arm Neural Super Sampling (NSS). It’s a kind of AI Super Resolution implementation for games, where rather than upscaling videos, the AI accelerator upscales graphics to lower the required bandwidth and increase the frame rate (or lower the power consumption) with no impact on the rendering quality. Watch the video below to see a demo rendered at 540p resolution by the GPU and upscaled to 1080p resolution by Arm neural technology with no obvious defects. The upscaler will introduce some lag, but only about 4ms per frame in sustained performance conditions, as explained in a technical blog about the Arm Neural and NSS announcement: We assume a target of 10 TOP/s per-watt of neural acceleration […]

July 16, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

FPGA-based Commodore 64 Ultimate keyboard PC is compatible with original C64 games

The last original Commodore 64 keyboard computer was sold in 1994, and since then, the Commodore brand and assets have been owned by various companies over the years, until YouTuber Christian Simpson (Perifractic) bought all assets earlier this year to revive the brand and launch the Commodore 64 Ultimate. The Commodore 64 Ultimate is based on an AMD Xilinx Artix-7 FPGA coupled with 128MB RAM and 16MB NOR flash, and can emulate the original computer, giving access to over 10,000 games and programs made for the original C64 computer. The new computer is a mix of old interfaces with analog outputs for CRT TVs, cartridges, SID sockets, and disk drives, and more recent ones, such as HDMI, WiFi, USB, and more. Commodore 64 Ultimate specifications: FPGA – AMD Xilinx Artix-7 FPGA System Memory – 128MB DDR2 RAM Storage 16MB NOR flash Internal microSD card slot Support for USB flash drives […]

July 7, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

GamerCard is a gift card-sized, Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W-powered handheld console with a 4-inch color display

GameCard Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W gift card handheld console

Grant Sinclair’s GamerCard is a handheld console based on the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W and a 4-inch color IPS display offered in an ultrathin design that’s about the size of a typical retail gift card. It joins other Raspberry Pi-based handheld terminals like the BeepBerry, ShaRPiKeebo, or DevTerm, but it’s more of a consumer device and offers by far the slimmest design at just 6mm thick. Being described as a “Grab & Go Raspberry Pi Gaming” platform, it’s mainly designed as a portable gaming console, but since it’s based on Raspberry Pi hardware, you could also use it as a battery-powered Linux terminal connected to a USB keyboard and mouse, and it also offers expansion capabilities through a Qwiic connector. GamerCard specifications: SBC – Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W (soldered on mainboard) – Based on Raspberry Pi RP3A0 quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 SiP with 512 MB SDRAM, Bluetooth 4.2 and […]

July 1, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

Olimex RP2350pc computer board features Raspberry Pi RP2350B MCU, HDMI/DVI video output, 4x USB ports

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 Memory – 8MB SPRAM Storage 16MB SPI Flash MicroSD […]

May 27, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

Sipeed Tang Console – A GOWIN GW5AST/GW5AT board with 60K or 138K LUT for FPGA development and retro gaming

Sipeed Tang Console is an FPGA development based on GOWIN GW5AST SoC FPGA with 138K LUTs and a hard RISC-V core or GW5AT FPGA with 60K LUTs, designed as a generic FPGA development and retro gaming platform. The Tange Console offers HDMI and RGB LCD display connectors, two USB ports for joystick or other peripherals, and plenty of expansion options with two 40-pin headers for SDRAM, GBA, and custom expansion, two PMOD connectors for joysticks or custom modules, and a 16-pin Raspberry Pi PCIe FFC connector. The “Tang Console” is also integrated into the “Tang Retro Console” as a complete gaming console kit with enclosure, joysticks, and accessories. Sipeed Tang Console specifications: SoM(one or the other) Sipeed Tang Mega 138K SoC FPGA – GOWIN GW5AST-LV138FPG484A with 138,240 LUT4 1,080 Kb Shadow SRAM (SSRAM) 6,120 Kb Block SRAM (BSRAM) Number of BSRAM – 340 298x DSP slices 12x PLLs 16x global […]