Clockwork Pi, creator of the GameSHell, DevTerm, and uConsole transportable computing units, has unveiled its newest design: the PicoCalc, a Raspberry Pi Pico-powered handheld designed to evoke “the golden age of computing.”
“Code in BASIC, discover the magic of Lisp, style the class of Unix, play retro video games and digital music all in simply 260KB reminiscence,” Clockwork Pi writes of its latest creation. “In that golden age, BASIC made programming accessible to everybody and powered legendary machines just like the Apple II, Commodore 64, and IBM PC. Now, with PicoCalc, you possibly can write BASIC code just like the pioneers anytime, wherever, be taught concerning the roots of recent computing with a retro UNIX clone, and uncover what makes Lisp so distinctive, even take pleasure in MP3s and play retro video games on minimal {hardware}.”
Clockwork Pi is again with a brand new handheld, this time powered by a Raspberry Pi Pico or Pico 2: the PicoCalc. (📷: Clockwork Pi)
The PicoCalc is comparatively compact for an all-in-one transportable pc, although massive for the calculator machine its title implies. Contained in the customized housing is the corporate’s newest board design, the clockworkPi v2.0 — designed, this time round, to host a Raspberry Pi Pico or Raspberry Pi Pico W microcontroller board, relatively than a fully-fledged computer-on-module as with earlier units.
Utilizing the first-generation Raspberry Pi Pico means the gadget is proscribed to 2 32-bit Arm Cortex-M0+ cores operating at a inventory 133MHz — although just lately given an official specs increase as much as 200MHz through an non-obligatory compiler setting — and simply 264kB of RAM. Which may not sound like a lot, however the units Clockwork Pi names as inspiration weren’t any extra well-specified: the Apple II and Commodore 64 had been based mostly across the single-core eight-bit MOS Know-how 6502 and simply 48kB and 64kB of reminiscence respectively, whereas the unique IBM Private Laptop 5150 launched with a single-core eight-bit Intel 8088 processor and a most of 256kB of RAM.
The equipment features a new service board, designed to take a Raspberry Pi Pico on 0.1″ pin headers. (📷: Clockwork Pi)
To assist alleviate reminiscence capability issues, the service board, which accepts Raspberry Pi Pico board with 0.1″ pin headers fitted, consists of 8MB pseudo-static RAM (PSRAM) and makes use of a full-size SD Card slot for storage. There’s an on-board STMicroelectronics STM32 coprocessor, with unused general-purpose enter/output (GPIO) pins introduced out to a header on the facet subsequent to these of the Raspberry Pi Pico’s RP2040 microcontroller. A 320×320 4″ IPS shade show is related over an SPI bus, with a rubber QWERTY keyboard beneath. There are twin amplified audio system above the display, and the whole lot is powered by a pair of 18650 lithium-ion batteries.
For individuals who want extra energy, Clockwork Pi says the design can be appropriate with the Raspberry Pi Pico 2 household — which swaps out the older Arm Cortex-M0+ cores for the consumer’s selection of Cortex-M33 or free and open-source Hazard3 RISC-V cores operating at 150MHz and near-doubles the RAM to 520kB whereas doubling the on-board flash storage to 4MB. “In comparison with the [Raspberry Pi] Pico 1 collection,” the corporate says, “the Pico 2 collection might have higher efficiency, larger reminiscence and bigger cupboard space, and could also be extra appropriate for RTOS [Real-Time Operating Systems] and recreation emulator improvement.”
The corporate’s design features a shade show, backlit keyboard, and GPIO pins from each the RP2040 and STM32 microcontrollers. (📷: Clockwork Pi)
On the software program facet — which has by no means been Clockwork Pi’s sturdy go well with, the corporate having launched its earlier DevTerm and uConsole units with partially-functional Linux builds which are not often if ever up to date — the corporate claims the PicoCalc has been examined with interactive BASIC and Lisp programming environments, a UNIX System 7 clone, as an MP3 participant, and with firmware developed in C/C++, Python, Lua, Golang, JavaScript, and Rust, plus the official Raspberry Pi Pico Software program Improvement Package (SDK) and the Arduino IDE.
The PicoCalc equipment is accessible to order now from the Clockwork Pi retailer at a significantly lower cost than its extra highly effective stablemates: the equipment, which incorporates the whole lot you want bar batteries together with a Raspberry Pi Pico with pre-soldered headers, is priced at simply $75. The corporate has pledged to make the board schematics accessible beneath an open {hardware} license, however on the time of writing it had but to launch the designs.
