Evertop is a portable PC that emulates an IBM XT with an 80186 processor and 1MB RAM. It can run DOS, Minix, and some other old 1980s operating systems. It also runs Windows up to version 3.0. Because it's based on a powerful yet very low power microcontroller, uses an e-ink display, packs two 10,000mAh batteries, and implements extreme power saving measures, it can run for hundreds or even thousands of hours on a single charge. Combine that with its built in solar panel, and you should be able to use it indefinitely off grid without ever having to worry about battery life.
It features a built in keyboard, external PS/2 keyboard and mouse ports, full CGA, Hercules, and MCGA graphics support, partial EGA and VGA support, PC speaker, Adlib, Covox, and Disney Sound Source audio output, built in speaker and headphone jack with volume control wheel, one DB9 RS232 serial port, one TTL serial port, dual keyboard and mouse PS/2 ports, USB flash drive port for convenient file transfer, an RJ45 ethernet port, wifi, and LoRA radio (I wrote a LoRA realtime chat client in QBASIC in about 15 minutes). Bluetooth hardware is present but I have not yet implemented it in any features, though I plan to add support for BT keyboard and mouse, and maybe serial over BT, IP over BT, audio over BT, and BT file transfer. The keyboard can be easily detached on a short tether to make it convenient to prop up the device at an angle while placing the keyboard on a flat surface. Or you can just plug in your own to the PS/2 port, as sometimes it's nice to be able to use a full sized keyboard, though the one I built into this device is big enough for normal typing.
The ISA PicoMEM Extension board (For 8086/8088 PC) is a way to run Emulated ISA boards on a real PC. It currently connects the full 8Bit Memory and I/O Bus plus an IRQ to a Raspberry Pi Pico, through a multiplexor/Level shifter chip. The Pi Pico also has a 8Mbyte PSRAM connected in SPI and a MicroSD Slot. This GitHub Repository does not contains the Firmware at the moment, but PMMOUSE, PMEMM and PM2000 Source are available.
To help people who want to repair their vintage IBM EGA cards, I've put together this reference schematic and layout. The schematic is closely modeled after the schematic in the IBM technical reference material but with mistakes corrected and more information added. The PCB layout is closely matched to the original card. Using KiCad, you can click on a component on the schematic and it will automatically highlight it in the layout, so it's perfect if you need to probe pins with a scope, logic analyzer, or even just a multimeter.
You might be excited about fabricating this board so you can have your very own clone of the EGA card, but unless you have the full set of custom chips, the board will be useless.
This is a reconstruction of the original 1981-82 IBM PC BIOS source code using scanning and transcription of the BIOS listings found in the IBM Technical Reference manuals.
All 3 versions of the IBM PC BIOS were built using Intel ASM86 on an Intel development system. In each case the BIOS source code is a single large file and the BIOS code is 8KB which resides at F000:E000
Intel 8086 monitor program that fits in a single boot sector.
XTIDE Universal BIOS makes it possible to use modern large ATA hard disks or Compact Flash cards on old PC's. You can then enjoy quiet or noiseless drives with more capacity than you'll ever need for old computers.
XTIDE Universal BIOS (also known as simply "XUB") can be used on any IBM PC, XT, AT or 100% compatible system. On AT systems you can use any 16-bit ISA or VLB IDE or Multi I/O controller. For XT systems you can use XTIDE rev1 (not available anymore), XTIDE rev2 or JR-IDE/ISA.
All BIOS binaries available here must be properly configured with the configuration tool XTIDECFG.COM before flashing/programming to ROM. In addition to configuring the BIOS file for use with your specific hardware you must also make sure the file is checksummed by saving the file to disk as that will create the padding and checksum required for installation in a computer. Always use the version of XTIDECFG.COM supplied together with the BIOS files.
Source code: https://www.xtideuniversalbios.org/browser
An SDK for developing DOS software for x86 machines, including IBM PC compatibles and NEC PC-98.
Since a PC is composed of a number of off-the-shelf chips, the SDK is structured in a way to reflect this. This means that the definitions related to specific chips such as the 6845, the 8253, 8259 etc. are separated from how they are implemented in the PC architecture (the IO addresses, memory addresses, IRQ and other resources they use). A header file for a specific chip will only contain the generic information for the chip. A separate system-specific header file (in this case IBMPC.inc/IBMPC.h or PC98.inc/PC98.h) will then contain the information specific to the implementation of that system. This allows you to use the header file for the chip for any system that implements it. This is especially useful for writing code for both IBM PC and NEC PC-98, which mostly use the same hardware, but not at the same locations. In future, it may also be expanded to other systems, such as the Tandy 2000.
A collection of cartridges, adapters and replacements for the Commodore C64.
- DiskBuddy64 is a minimal adapter that can interface a Commodore 1541(II) floppy disk drive to your PC via USB in order to read from and write on disks. It uses its own fast loader.
- TapeBuddy64 is a simple and inexpensive adapter that can interface a Commodore Datasette to your PC via USB in order to read from and write on tapes.
- SD2IEC LP is a C64 SD-card adapter and floppy disk drive emulator based on the design by Lars Pontoppidan with cassette port plug. Copy C64 games and programs to SD-card on your PC, put the SD-card in your SD2IEC and load games and programs on your C64!
- Tapuino is a Commodore Datasette emulator based on the design and firmware by Sweetlilmre. Put your TAP-files on an SD-Card and plug the device in your good old Commodore!
- The classic xu1541 is a Commodore floppy disk drive to USB adapter based on the designs by Till Harbaum and Spiro R. Trikaliotis. It connects a variety of CBM drives (1541, 1541-II, 1570, 1571, 1581, SX-64's internal floppy disk) to USB-equipped PCs running Windows, Linux or Mac OS X. This allows for easy transfer of disk images to and from these devices and helps you preserve your old data.
- TapeDump64 is a simple and inexpensive adapter that can interface a Commodore Datasette to your PC via USB in order to dump your old software saved on tapes as TAP files. It is inspired by TrueTape64, a similar project by Francesco Vannini.
- A C64 keyboard to USB adapter based on the design and firmware by Mikkel Holm Olsen. Use the original keyboard with you favourite emulator!
- The SwinSID nano is a replacement board for the legendary SID soundchip of the Commodore C64 based on the design by Swinkels.
- A simple 8k cartridge for C64.
- A MagicDesk compatible cartridge for Commodore C64 based on the work of Marko Šolajić and Zzarko. Build your own cartridges out of multiple PRG-files! Has a 64k variant and a 256k variant.
- A 512k MagicDesk compatible cartridge for Commodore C64 based on the work of Marko Šolajić and Zzarko. Build your own cartridges out of even more PRG-files!
- The FreeLoad cartridge is a simple clone of an Epyx Fastload cartridge, offering a system reset button, a file access activity LED and a disable switch. Load 5x faster from your floppy disk drive, your SD2IEC or your Pi1541!
On My abandonware you can download all the old video games from 1978 to 2010 for free! You can play Pacman, Arkanoid, Tetris, Galaxian, Alter Ego, or Blackthorne, Civilization, Sim City, Prince of Persia, Xenon 2, King's quest, Ultima, Kyrandia, The Incredible Machine, Another World, Test Drive, Flashback, Lemmings!
And more, of course.
A 100% compatible replica of the famed SB 1.0 sound card. 8-bit ISA card. Full bill of parts. Even has a hex dump which turns an Atmel 89S51 into an 80C51 DSP chip (if you don't feel like buying one from China).
CC-BY-SA v4.0.
An application which downloads and archives Windows Updates for offline installation or slipstreaming.
A website that lets you search out and download missing .dll files to fix a botched reinstall or application upgrade.
The website for a classic space trading/warfare game called Elite run by one of the original authors. Includes a lot of information and even the novella which was published with the original version.
A technical reference site that has lots of odd information, most of it PC related. Data formats, file extensions, datastructures and algorithms of sundry kinds and uses, hardware specs, microcontrollers, history, advice... there's a lot of stuff buried in here. If you need something you could do worse than check here first.