c64-pico-ram-interface icon indicating copy to clipboard operation
c64-pico-ram-interface copied to clipboard

Published 20 hours ago • verified publisher icon cknave

Possible with alternate bus devices?

Open mwedmark opened this issue 2 years ago • 1 comments

Would it be possible for alternate usage of this hardware? For example:

  • MIDI device
  • HDMI/VGA Video output?
  • FM sound/ Extra SIDs?

I guess it is a question of: Free I/O's, Free Pico memory and performance..

mwedmark avatar Mar 17 '22 17:03 mwedmark

This particular design is only capable of emulating a ROM, so you're limited to reading from its memory and using the USB serial port on the Pico as I/O. My interest was in being able to use the Pico's ARM cores as a co-processor and have an "infinite" amount of data (or as much as fits on the flash).

If you're not interested in emulating ROM, there's potential for interfacing with other devices. Depending on how many address lines you need, this will free up a good amount of GPIO pins. There's another PIO unit that you could also use.

The biggest limitations to me are needing to level shift everything between 3.3V and 5V, the limited space for PIO programs, and the limited number of GPIO pins on the Pico. Still not bad for $4!

cknave avatar Mar 18 '22 04:03 cknave