A web site that sells components for classic Apple units known as 1-bit rainbow has unveiled what seems to be to be the tiniest functioning Macintosh duplicate ever. Meet the pico-mac-nano.
The pico-mac-nano is a functioning miniature-scale duplicate of the unique 1984 Apple Macintosh. It’s a dizzying 62 mm excessive and may really use a USB keyboard and mouse, because of the included USB splitter cable. The tiny Macintosh duplicate really works, and it runs an emulated model of the basic Mac working system.
Absolutely assembled, examined and dealing pico-mac-nano plus new USB splitter cable and hex key. That is the 1-bit rainbow implementation of the open supply pico-mac undertaking modified to run on a Pico Zero, and mixed with a tiny 2″ LCD display and a customized PCB in an in depth, miniature, 62mm excessive duplicate Macintosh 128k case.
1-bit rainbow’s Nick Gillard shared particulars about how he got here up with the concept for the pico-mac-nano in a weblog publish:
It began with me stumbling throughout the loopy low-cost Raspberry Pi Pico and taking my first foray into micro-controllers. Trying to find what others had executed with the Pico led me to pico-mac; a undertaking by fellow Brit and super-clever-fella, Matt Evans. In a nutshell he created a stripped again emulator for the unique Macintosh working Macintosh System 3 on a Pico with USB keyboard and mouse help and VGA out. This was no imply feat and took a number of ingenuity (its an amazing learn) as a result of limitations of the Pico equivalent to solely having 264k of RAM.
The pico-mac undertaking impressed me. To me it echoed the early days of computer systems like the primary Macintosh when pioneers achieved exceptional issues throughout the technological limitations of the day. For sure I set about constructing a pico-mac and am not ashamed (barely ashamed) to say I giggled like a bit lady when that black & white, 512 x 342 pixel Macintosh desktop appeared on my VGA monitor and I launched Lode Runner.
Whereas Gillard thought his creation was fairly cool because it sat, he started to consider how a lot cooler it might be if the pico-mac might really drive a small LCD panel in a miniature duplicate of a Macintosh case. Thus, he started a quest so as to add LCD panel help, simply to see if he might make a working Macintosh utilizing at the moment out there, low-cost parts.
There was loads of trial and error for the undertaking on Gillard’s half, as he labored to suit all the pieces within the 62mm case. That’s when he discovered about designing a printed circuit board and having it manufactured. He 3D modeled and 3D printed a dummy of the PCB in a measurement and form that may match the case and permit all of the connections. After engaged on the design, he was pleasantly stunned to find the primary prototypes labored!
Whereas we don’t have the area right here to put out the whole improvement course of, Gillard’s weblog publish is really helpful and entertaining studying.
When the pico-mac-nano is offered, 1-bit rainbow sells it for £56. Sadly, heavy demand has led to it at the moment being out of inventory, because of the entire protection it has obtained on tech blogs. The web site solely says that orders will resume “quickly,” and events can enter their electronic mail handle to be notified when extra grow to be out there.
In case you don’t need to wait, you possibly can create one your self, because of the pico-mac code and 3D-printable case recordsdata which might be freely out there on GitHub.