GoKawiil
Tech News
Developers have released FRANK 386, a firmware project built on Tiny386 that emulates an i386 (with partial i486/i586 and optional x87 FPU) PC on Raspberry Pi Pico 2-based RP2350 boards. It supports VGA/HDMI video, SD card storage, PS/2 and USB input, NES gamepads, and multiple sound cards including AdLib and Sound Blaster 16, letting it boot DOS, Windows 3.x/95, and Linux.
A newly compiled FAQ traces Raspberry Pi's history from its 2012 debut, when the first $35 Model B sold out so fast it crashed retailer Farnell and RS Components' servers, through to 2025, when cumulative sales hit roughly 68 million units. It also charts the company's shift into designing its own silicon, starting with the RP2040 chip in 2021, and its 2024 stock market listing while the founding Foundation remains majority owner.
A developer known as LouD has built USBSID-Pico, an open-source hardware board that connects genuine MOS Technology SID chips (6581/8580) from the Commodore 64 to modern computers, phones and media players via USB, MIDI and ASID protocols. Built around the Raspberry Pi Pico's rp2040 and rp2350 microcontrollers, the device can currently drive up to two real SID chips or compatible replacements, with support for four planned.
A maker documented building the Scanwheel, a small electromechanical television using a spinning 3D-printed drum instead of a traditional Nipkow disk, achieving an unusual 4,096-by-20-pixel widescreen resolution. The device is driven by a Raspberry Pi Pico controlling a motor driver board and LEDs mounted so the drum's perforations sweep past them to trace scan lines, recreating the persistence-of-vision effect pioneered by John Logie Baird in the 1920s.