Skip to content

Latest commit

 

History

History
74 lines (56 loc) · 3.12 KB

README.md

File metadata and controls

74 lines (56 loc) · 3.12 KB
Raw

eris

There is a blog for this project at http://blog.erisdev.com and an emscripten version which is identical to the hardware version at http://js.erisdev.com

Eris is an open source 16 bit retrocomputer design which can be built cheaply and easily and has low implementation requirements. It can be built for about £10 or so + cost of preferred keyboard.

It's a virtual machine system, so the code that runs on it is written in its own assembler, so porting is much more reliable.

Currently it runs on SDL , on Linux, Windows, Javascript via emScripten and Raspbian.

It runs stand alone on a ESP32 chip with FABGL compatible hardware (a few discrete components) or the TTGO VGA32 board or compatible - this is the reference design.

Future platforms : PiZero, definitely. Possibly others.

This is stuff that actually works now. Not planned, theorised, possibilities.

It is Beta at the time of writing, but bugs have been minor. I'm writing a pile of games for Retrochallenge April 2020 and the real purpose is to dogfood test it. Though this is cross development , but I'm pretty sure the editor works pretty well. I soak tested SPIFFS (the ESP32 storage system).

Hardware

  • 16 bit 100% orthogonal RISC-style CPU running at slightly under 1 MIPS on ESP32. (it has bits of IMP-16, bits of ARM RISC and bits of CDP1600)
  • 24k RAM and 16k ROM 16 bit words, max 47.75k RAM words
  • 320x240 4 bit colour display driven by a baby blitter, does not use Program RAM.
  • 2 tone and 1 noise channels.
  • Running on ESP32, Javascript , Raspian and Windows/Linux emulator (only uses SDL)
  • Uses system storage - Local HD, SPIFFS and SDCard dependent on platform.
  • Files can be downloaded from the internet into the platform
  • Files can be uploaded from the platfom for backup

System Software

  • python3 Cross Assembler, Sprite Generator, Basic tokeniser for cross development.

Kernel

  • 53 x 30 text display
  • Commodore style screen editor which works like a text editor
  • Line, Rectangle, Ellipse Graphics Text functions.
  • Single colour sprite system supporting 24 at once.
  • Standard joystick interface (it maps onto arrow, shift and ctrl)
  • Background sound generation
  • Redefinable function keys
  • Keyboard internationalisation

Integer Basic

  • Integer and String, one and two dimension array types
  • Approx 12-13 times quicker than C64 Basic (to be fair, this uses floats)
  • For, While, If/Else/Endif or If/Then, Repeat structures
  • Long variable names
  • Named procedures and value parameters
  • Local variables
  • Commands for sound, sprites, joystick, keypress, graphics etc.
  • Indirection operator (like BBC Basic or BCPL)
  • Inline Assembler (like BBC Basic)
  • Built in quasi-Forth programming language (which is much easier than assembler but less efficient)
  • Has GOTO, GOSUB and RETURN but you don't need line numbers except editing.
  • Listing Indents structures and does syntax colouring.
  • Message internationalisation (could internationalise keywords ...)
  • Hidden lines for support code ; you can't edit or list any line no > 32767 or 0 (the point of this is that learning materials can hide support routines)

Documentation

  • Hardware Description
  • Basic Reference