8086YES!, a Chinese language firm specializing in utilizing real 8086 and 80386 processors to energy fashionable throwback transportable computer systems, is branching out with the MSXBOOK — a compact MSX2-compatible laptop with upcycled iPad show and a one-chip FPGA-powered structure.
“The MSXBOOK is an MSX2-compatible laptop based mostly on the One Chip MSX (OCM),” 8086YES! explains of its newest retro-modern creation. “It options all of the capabilities of the OCM, together with a 9.7-inch LCD display screen and a backlit mechanical keyboard. We have now fastidiously designed it to satisfy the wants of as many retro computing fanatics as potential. Relaxation assured, it’s a full pocket book laptop, not only a circuit board.”
Should you’re in search of a conveyable little bit of Japanese computing historical past, the MSXBOOK delivers — full with cartridge slot. (📷: 8086YES!)
8086YES! rose to prominence amongst classic computing fanatics with the discharge of the Pocket8086, a compact clamshell laptop computer that paired a really fashionable 7″ IPS show with an Intel 8086-compatible processor — not an emulation, not even an FPGA, however precise unique silicon operating in a contemporary motherboard. The system was adopted by the Pocket386, which swapped out the 10MHz 8086 for a 40MHz 386SX — once more, utilizing unique silicon — to offer elevated efficiency and broader software program compatibility, together with the choice to run Microsoft Home windows 95 or Home windows 98.
The MSXBOOK is, at first look, a bigger successor to the Pocket household — however the Intel-compatible chip has gone, changed by a One Chip MSX (1chipMSX) carried out on an Altera Cyclone FPGA. This options the whole lot you’d have present in a house laptop constructed to the MSX2 commonplace — a collaboration between ASCII Company and Microsoft for the Japanese market, launching in 1983 and operating for a decade — however in a single chip, permitting the corporate to slim issues right down to a conveyable kind issue.
The laptop computer itself is constructed round a 9.7″ 1024×768 show, upcycled from Apple iPads, and features a mechanical keyboard, amplified stereo audio system, an growth cartridge slot, the choice to run at unique speeds or “turbo” 5.37MHz or 8.06MHz modes, two joystick ports appropriate with nine-pin digital joysticks and gamepads, two USB ports, CVBS and VGA video outputs, and a VGA output with the choice to generate CRT-simulating scanlines in {hardware}. Software program is loaded from a 4GB SD Card, and there is a 4Ah battery charged by USB Kind-C delivering a claimed four-hour runtime.
The venture is constructed round an Altera Cyclone FPGA and makes use of the 1chipMSX gateware — which the consumer has to provide themselves. (📷: 8086YES!)
There’s only one catch, nonetheless: whereas 8086YES! has begun promoting the MSXBOOK, it is not fairly able to run out-of-the-box — relying, because it does, on having a replica of the 1chipMSX gateware that the consumer should provide and flash themselves. “The MSXBOOK doesn’t at present embrace firmware code,” the corporate admits. “Customers can obtain the firmware themselves. If a consumer has a firmware file, we may help them obtain it to the machine.”
For these keen to place within the work, the MSXBOOK is offered to order on Tindie at $195.
