PicoCPC

[XeNoMoRPH]

My friend Freddy and I have been talking about porting PicoMEM to CPC for a long time. Well, here it is, I finally got started.
This is the kind of project that should not be taken lightly, it is a huge amount of work. That explains why you have not seen me for 1 month. And I am taking it easy so as not to do as with the Amiga Portable and end up with a burnout.

After a big chunk of fall and the functional ROMs, and the RAM which started to not crash the machine, I decided to start talking about it and to make this video.
A chance in 2 days the problem was solved.
Next function, an emulation of a floppy drive for CPC464/464+ supercharged.

[czarnikjak]

Pico just keeps on giving!

I am not sure if you are just posting it on someone's behalf or if you are involved in this project, but i wonder if there are plans to publish the technical details of this (schematics and Pico code), i am especially interested in the details of FDC emulation.

[overange]

This looks like the mattcallow cpc Pico Rom project?

https://github.com/mattcallow/CPC_PICOROM

[FreddyV]

Hi,

I am working with Rodrik on the PicoCPC.
The PicoCPC is Rodrik project, and I am here as "Starter"/ Hardware design help.

First, I am sorry for @matronica because our project is similar to his PicoROM.

Anyway, the PicoCPC is based on the PicoMEM, my board for PC I work on since 2 years and a half.
And I wanted to do a PicoCPC with Rodrik since month.

We were not aware of the PicoROM when we started. (3 months ago)

The PicoCPC use a Pico2, connected via multiplexor.
This let enaugh pin to add an I2S DAC, MicroSD and some more control signals.

The board can decode any I/O port and of course RAM/ROM cycles.

As it use a Pico2, its RAM is doubled vs Pico1 and it can access a 8MB PSRAM as well.

For the Open/Close model, it will be rodrik decision.

Advantage of this model is no use of CH376 for USB : USB in FAT32&extfs, with nothing to do at the CPC side.

There is no external ROM, so the microntroller access the emulated RAM/ROM and USB/MicroUSB at the same time :
Direct write from the uSD to the CPC emualted RAM at 3MB/s (For example)

As it is an integrated architecture, it is much more simple to code and extend that any other solution

The Board presented is a prototype, We may design a new version next week (That may be distributed a little to developpers)

Then a final one more likely in 3 or 4 months.

If you know Rodrik, we can also trust he will do a nice 3D case for al this

[Pollo]

Great project.
Will it have CPC hard drive functionality? Like the M4 board, Albireo, X-Mass...

[genesis8]

Great project.
Will it have CPC hard drive functionality? Like the M4 board, Albireo, X-Mass...

Yes, already a SD card, and the future possibility to use a card, more information in the video that I did summarize on my web site.

On youtube I suggested to write a node for Unidos so it would be one more card with the same commands used as others.

[overange]

It is great news that the PICO is now being used in the CPC systems, there is some other fantastic open source PICO based systems out there aswell, great to see another.

https://github.com/robinhedwards/A8PicoCart

https://github.com/aotta

Can't wait to see a cartridge version created for the GX4000 and PLUS systems

[matronica]

That looks like an interesting project. I hope it will be open source. I did start to look at multiplexing the address bus to free up some pins on the Pico and thus open up the possibility of disk emulation. But I haven't got very far with it.  I've not looked into using the Pico2, but that is a good option.

[FreddyV]

Thanks @matronica

I saw you started to check multiplexing. 

We could go to the pico1 but of course better to go to the pico2 directly.
If wou want to have an idea about the picocpc code, it is based on my picomem who has open source code:
https://github.com/FreddyVRetro/ISA-PicoMEM

[FreddyV]

It is great news that the PICO is now being used in the CPC systems, there is some other fantastic open source PICO based systems out there aswell, great to see another.

https://github.com/robinhedwards/A8PicoCart

https://github.com/aotta

Can't wait to see a cartridge version created for the GX4000 and PLUS systems

Thanks.

I checked the A8Pico code.
With no multiplexing,  it is able to emulate only ROM and need to stop ROM to run commands.
It use only one core and no PIO.

So, it can t be compared to the PicoCPC.
The optimisation of the PIO and ARM code is the result of 1 year of test/trials on the PicoMEM. 

[FreddyV]

It is great news that the PICO is now being used in the CPC systems, there is some other fantastic open source PICO based systems out there aswell, great to see another.

https://github.com/robinhedwards/A8PicoCart

https://github.com/aotta

Can't wait to see a cartridge version created for the GX4000 and PLUS systems

Thanks.

I checked the A8Pico code.
With no multiplexing,  it is able to emulate only ROM and need to stop ROM to run commands.
It use only one core and no PIO.

So, it can t be compared to the PicoCPC.
The optimisation of the PIO and ARM code is the result of 1 year of test/trials on the PicoMEM. 

AOTA are rom only board.
PicoCPC code is less than 2 months old.

[czarnikjak]

I wonder what unique features of pico 2 are you using that would stop it from working on pico 1? Extra ram?

[FreddyV]

I wonder what unique features of pico 2 are you using that would stop it from working on pico 1? Extra ram?

Nothing. 

But pico2 is the same price as pico1
And the pico2 Qspi PSRAM support may allow more rom/ram

[FreddyV]

Hi,

Rodrik is progressing, the PicoCPC can now start games from emulated Floppy (.SDK)
And disks can be loaded with an RSX command.

[SerErris]

I am more interested in the PicoCPC card - not the code. Do we have a opensource design for the card (the Pico holder?) I need to build one to connect securly and in a good version to the CPC expansion port for other purposes, not interested to run roms from it for now.

So would be fantastic if you could share the platine layout, at best in an editable form. I would then avoid to need to design my own.

[GUNHED]

What is this card actually capable of?

The Video is nice, but I don't understand it. Any information in English is appreciated. 

[genesis8]

Features on my web site

You can have subtiltles translated on Youtube though.

[GUNHED]

Features on my web site

You can have subtiltles translated on Youtube though.

BTW: FutureOS does need a proper (CPC6128 compatible) &C3 RAM mode too. 

[ZorrO]

I was expecting something like this:
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1697163497294312

[FreddyV]

Great project.
Will it have CPC hard drive functionality? Like the M4 board, Albireo, X-Mass...

Hi,
Most of it is already implemented (Navigate in the SD, start program, Load ROM, Load .DSK)

[FreddyV]

I am more interested in the PicoCPC card - not the code. Do we have a opensource design for the card (the Pico holder?) I need to build one to connect securly and in a good version to the CPC expansion port for other purposes, not interested to run roms from it for now.

So would be fantastic if you could share the platine layout, at best in an editable form. I would then avoid to need to design my own.

Hi,

The approach will be surely like the PicoMEM, to not permitt other to produce boards to avoid having to do support for it.
And the price to be reasonable, with the fact it is produced in medium volume...

Really too few person solder their board themself.
Even me, I don't do it ! And I did the PicoMEM....

[FreddyV]

So, for the features, it now has : 

ROM Emulation 
RAM Emulation (464/6128)
Floppy disk controller emulation, supporting .DSK and even most of the copy protected games. (on 464)
Create Floppy "pack" and swap between them with a button
Navigate in the SD and run games from it
Setup program helping to do the initial config if there is no config file on the SD (With graphics and music)
Various commands, to list and load the ROM and Disk images

C3 mode to arrive in the next hardware release.
And much more for the final hardware release (Really more  )

[Brocky]

would it be possible to run sound emulation on this aswell (eg SID or YM FM)? with some board changes of course..
i know there are some sound emulators out there for pico.. ..would it be worth adding to this project? maybe a bit late now..

....you could even setup some FPU/Math coprocessor functions for fast and high precision math...(multiply/divide/sin/vector arrays etc etc)  ..pico2 would be better for this as it has FPU hardware, but the software math on pico1 + IO access would still be faster than the Z80s non-existent math! ... it could generate a Mandelbrot and display it quite fast i think!.. RSX calls for BASIC even! and coz youre emulating RAM you could just dump the result in a specific memory location directly on the pico sort of DMA-ish, basically cut out the z80 having to read it from IO and write it into memory  (tip: you could even change the contents of an emulated ROM on the fly quite easily!)

[Prodatron]

would it be possible to run sound emulation on this aswell (eg SID or YM FM)? with some board changes of course..

Regarding FM:
- ACE-DL already supports OPL2 sound, so there are libs available for this hardware emulation.
- OPL2 is the one for which Willy has been designed (by PulkoMandy) to connect an OPL2 soundcard via LPT to the CPC.

If PicoCPC would support this, there would already be available software for this (PulkoMandy VGM Player for UniDOS and SymAmp for SymbOS).

Full OPL4 support would be even cooler of course, as beside FM you would have Wavetable sound as well (supported by SymAmp for Amiga MODs and SymbOS Sound Daemon for music and effects), but I am not sure if the Pico is able to handle this?

[McArti0]

Game changer.

aliexpress.com/item/1005008404804398.html

RP2350B 48GPIO Pins 2.54mm 5$