Olimex, a provider of development tools and programmers for embedded devices, announced the next RP2040 based board, RP2040-PICO30. Presented by Olimex founder Tsvetan Usunov, the board maintains the pinout of the Raspberry Pi Pico while offering even more GPIO pins. The reason for its creation is challenge Building a Modern Peripheral MOS 6502 CPU Computer fartOr the lowest possible cost.
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The standard pinout of the Raspberry Pi Pico and Raspberry Pi Pico W has 26 user-controllable GPIO pins. Four pins are reserved for power control (GPIO23), USB detection (GPIO24), status LED (GPIO25), and power monitoring (GPIO29). The Raspberry Pi Pico pinout has a total of 40 pins, the remaining 10 are used for multiple GND connections, 3.3V, 5V, and the ADC voltage reference. The RP2040-PICO30 removes four GND connections to narrow the pinout down to a few more GPIO pins while maintaining general compatibility. A welcome addition to the RP2040-PICO30 is a USB C connector for data and power. I prefer this because it’s more robust than micro USB and doesn’t require you to guess the direction correctly. USB C also provides a power supply capable of delivering up to 3A, and the SY8089A DC-DC voltage regulator guarantees 3.3V at 3A.
The reason for the extra GPIO is for another Olimex project. Neo6502The project, according to Olimex founder Tsvetan Usunov, is an attempt to see “is it possible to build a modern peripheral 6502 computer at the lowest possible cost?” Neo6502 is his attempt to combine old and new into one package. The old one is the MOS 6502 CPU, a popular CPU in the early days of the 20th century home computer era. New is the RP2040, which emulates RAM, programmable clock, video, USB host, storage, and SID player. The Neo6502 project aims to incorporate all of this into a board for around $25-$30.
The RP2040-PICO30 is currently in the prototype stage and is targeted for release in late May 2023. There are two versions of him, a €4.50/€6 2MB flash model with soldered headers and a €6.50/€8 16MB flash model with soldered headers.
