I think the universal ask list is always as follows (due to broken, missing or rare components) reasonable or not.

1. Floppy / HD emulation, physical interface or both
A) USB storage and keyboard mouse solutions
2. Communications, Ethernet, WiFi and methods of easily moving data to the machine or using the machine to access networking directly
A) Modern web, there have been musings (mainly 8-bit micro related) to have a modern web sandboxed on a card with a means of output and control by the vintage machine to simplify in effect using the vintage machine to collect all the files off the web
3) Audio and soundcards, everybody loves sound
4) Exotic memory expansions including EMS 4 and locating ram into the upper 384k
5) video cards and sync adapters, some just want VGA/HDMI, some want legacy, some want some sort of combination EGA to HDMI or VGA on a mono screen. I personally have VGA converted to 15khz RGB+S (like an Amiga)

The above are most every exotic project I’ve seen mused or attempted.

Despite your view that ISA is only PC/XT related I can easily see much more modern machines making use of a specialty ISA card if it gives them the audio or virtual floppy they want

The VGA adapter (if implemented) should have good compatibility - it turns out (with testing only) that the Book8088 can only support EGA resolution on its screen.

It looks like
- Floppy / HD emulation through .ima files
- NE2000 network via wifi
- memory expansion

are already implemented - great work FreddyV!

I'm wondering about "modern web" while I think about the "power" of an 8088.... With something faster I agree some kind of proxy to translate the security etc would be good - but for an 8088 maybe we should strip down to functional basics - I'd probably access the modern web mainly to access files anyway - and ideally access current news, forums such as this one, BBS type sites - perhaps a targeted or even somewhat cached "site frameworks" system would work well for the slowest machines.

If I'm right FreddyV, would there eventually be a list of "known" modern XT-type machine projects in the bios setup? eg. the Xi, NuXT, Book8088, and I'm sure others? I can see that would make setting up options, resources etc would be very straightforward that way.

Hi,

Not easy to answer to everybody 😀

So, Yes, ne2000 is working, it is done by Kevin. but I did not test it for the moment.
Kevin was able to access a Netware Disk over internet at 500Kb/s on a 5170. So, same speed as the XTIDE... It then add virtually unlimitted disk space.
He could even browse internet on Windows 95 from a 486 DX4 133MHz...

I also got the USB Mouse working, it is extremely fast and reactive. (No Serial port emulation, it is "native" direct USB)
My modified CTMouse driver allow to still use a serial/PS2 mouse and Add the USB one at the same time. (Even 2 USB mouse can work at the same time 😀 )

Some of you ask for Video, this is not at all in the plan, as it require lot of I/O Pin. The Pico is surely not a good choice for this....
Regarding Audio, it is in the plan, easy to add but like all the rest, need time. (Adlib, CMS, Tandy, Why not covox and Sound Blaster)

@FreddyV it sounds like you already have a clever plan for "mounting" floppy images - I had never even considered direct-mount from the internet, that sounds very cool.
You've got a lot working on it the plan - impressive.
You make a fair point about video. I would buy a card for the other things combined.

I don't know if it was discussed before but a 15-pin gameport adapter would be great. If this was implemented via a breakout cable I think that would be fine? I was interested by how the PicoGUS Femto has used a 2.5mm jack to provide MIDI breakout.

betamax80 wrote on 2023-11-03, 22:15:

@FreddyV it sounds like you already have a clever plan for "mounting" floppy images - I had never even considered direct-mount f […]
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@FreddyV it sounds like you already have a clever plan for "mounting" floppy images - I had never even considered direct-mount from the internet, that sounds very cool.
You've got a lot working on it the plan - impressive.
You make a fair point about video. I would buy a card for the other things combined.

I don't know if it was discussed before but a 15-pin gameport adapter would be great. If this was implemented via a breakout cable I think that would be fine? I was interested by how the PicoGUS Femto has used a 2.5mm jack to provide MIDI breakout.

Hi,

Adafruit released a I2C to DB25 joystick board. So, this is possible at "Almost no cost" at the hardware side. Add software support is another story.

For Floppy, I plan to add keyboard shortcut to mount the next and previous floppy image in the SD. (Images finishing with a number 01, 02, 03...)

Really, "Everything" is possible. what is more difficult is to keep having time and motivation to code (This Week end I did almost nothing, only improved USB mouse support)

betamax80 wrote on 2023-10-24, 23:37:

I'm wondering about "modern web" while I think about the "power" of an 8088.... With something faster I agree some kind of proxy to translate the security etc would be good - but for an 8088 maybe we should strip down to functional basics - I'd probably access the modern web mainly to access files anyway - and ideally access current news, forums such as this one, BBS type sites - perhaps a targeted or even somewhat cached "site frameworks" system would work well for the slowest

Pretty much any older single core PC would require a coprocessor to handle security (modern web breaks even semi modern PCs)

There are XT targeted browsers that also likely work on slightly faster systems (286/386)

https://github.com/jhhoward/MicroWeb

There are some webpages that remove the S of https for older systems on the web (web server does the security for you)

http://frogfind.com/

Historically I remember folks musing that modern web could be surfed with any PC with a GPU (3daccellerator) if you had a driver to handle https on it. Maybe the 100000x VSA100 gpus in a warehouse somewhere should be used on a card like this as a dual purpose assistant.

At least, ne2000 emulation via Wifi will be a good plus.

And why not modem emulation (COM4 Serial)
Plus we can think about a web page to configure the board or interact with it, SFTP to copy image on the uSD via Wifi...
Screen / RAM Capture and so on....

FreddyV wrote on 2023-11-06, 19:29:

At least, ne2000 emulation via Wifi will be a good plus. […]
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At least, ne2000 emulation via Wifi will be a good plus.

And why not modem emulation (COM4 Serial)
Plus we can think about a web page to configure the board or interact with it, SFTP to copy image on the uSD via Wifi...
Screen / RAM Capture and so on....

If you can put a webserver on, I can see that a config page accessible from a modern PC would be absolutely fine 😀
Some basic initialisation app for DOS perhaps (or the BIOS config if you are able to implement all you want onto it).
Yes the NE2000 emulation is great. Have had a lot of problem with theoldnet WifiModem - I don't know what kind of wifi network it expects.... it would need to be capable of 802.11N and WPA2 / captive portal at least really for those of us who can't configure the access point 🙁

I think that the PicoGUS may be having an issue with the Book 8088 V2, someone on VCF has suggested that the I/O "controller" may be sharing the addresses that the PicoGUS Femto is locked to using (240, 1, 5 from memory).
So you may (if you want to have Book8088 compatibility) need to offer a couple of address mappings if possible.

Hi,

I finished the PicoMEM 1.1 Board, supposed to correct all the known HW Problems.
- USB Power Fixed
- uSD/PSRAM routing improved
- Added one IRQ (IRQ5)
- Correct a Startup problem with PC1512 and other
- QWiiC connector added

I will produce 20 Boards as I am quite confident and to not spend too much if it fail anyway.

I'd definitely love to test one on my Tandy 1000RL/HD.

This is all very exciting. Seems like theres a lot of breakthough things that can be done here.

This looks amazing! Would love a board to play around with if you decide to sell.

Thanks all.

It currently does not work on tandy 1000 due to the memory structure. (Will do later)

To many ppls ask me for boards, this will be for next year, when I think the board is ready for more important production.

I think the PicoMEM could enhance vastly my PC bridgeboard system in my Amiga. The combo Adlib + big HD drive emulation of 4 GB alone is a killer, let alone if it does LAN and bluetooth controller. We are limited by very few ISA slots in such a system and PicoMEM could do almost everything in one 8 bit slot. Amazing!
Where is the Discord server please?

I don't understand the obsession with the PI Pico for these projects. Often the projects are limited by the Pico's performance. It can just barely handle software defined ISA. There are way more powerful microcontrollers out there that are plentiful and an order of magnitude cheaper.

FreddyV wrote on 2023-11-15, 08:25:

Hi, […]
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Hi,

I finished the PicoMEM 1.1 Board, supposed to correct all the known HW Problems.
- USB Power Fixed
- uSD/PSRAM routing improved
- Added one IRQ (IRQ5)
- Correct a Startup problem with PC1512 and other
- QWiiC connector added

PicoMEM11.JPG

I will produce 20 Boards as I am quite confident and to not spend too much if it fail anyway.

I’m interested when these become available! Would love to test on my PC1640 and also do some of my own development.

kingcake wrote on 2023-11-27, 00:57:

I don't understand the obsession with the PI Pico for these projects. Often the projects are limited by the Pico's performance. It can just barely handle software defined ISA. There are way more powerful microcontrollers out there that are plentiful and an order of magnitude cheaper.

Hi,

I already answered to this so many time 😀
The Pico is fast enaugh to do what we want and Slow enaugh to be Fun to code.
There are person who claim "Stupid to put a microcontroller that can emulate the full machine"
And Other "Why not take a Teensy"
I see no challenge to use Quad core 4GHz proc for this...

I Just start in microcontroller coding, this is a project for me to do something simple, using modern developpment tools, this match everything.
And the Pi Pico documentation and SDK are Excellent...
I tried to read teensy doc, this is painfull to read...

If you have example of cheaper, more simple andmore powerfull microcontroller, don't hesitate to tell me 😀
I am not closed to only RP2040, I just explained why I choosed it above.

kingcake wrote on 2023-11-27, 00:57:

I don't understand the obsession with the PI Pico for these projects. Often the projects are limited by the Pico's performance. It can just barely handle software defined ISA. There are way more powerful microcontrollers out there that are plentiful and an order of magnitude cheaper.

Please tell me about a microcontroller that is 10 cents and is more powerful than the RP2040.