The new Raspberry Pi Pico already being used to emulate a BBC Micro


The Pico was only announced earlier this week, and already the community are finding ways to expand its functionality.

Ever since 2012, Raspberry Pi has offered very accessible computers that have grown into a must-have for thousands of enthusiasts out there.

From arcade-cabinets to a media server for the home, its replaced many PC's due to its smaller size, cheap prices and powerful specs, with a huge, friendly community.

With that, they have been able to look into the Pico in more detail, and have discovered some hidden uses for it.

What is the Pi Pico?

Rather than bringing out a Pi 4 mini, the company have instead created a spin-off, which they say is more suited to controlling home appliances and sensor products.

It's their first microcontroller, which can be attached to different products, all for the price of $4.

It's built on their 'RP2040' silicon chip, which has an ARM Cortex M0+ CPU, with 264KB of RAM and support for up to 16MB off-board Flash memory.

Its size is similar to a pack of bubble gum. easily able to be attached to different sensors and even experiments to measure certain atmospheric environments.

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What Fans Have Done So Far

Of course, a big part of the Raspberry Pi line is its talented community, where the bounds set are removed, showing others just what the Pi and Pi Pico are truly capable of.

An enthusiast by the name of Graham Sanderson has been able to get a BBC Micro and Acorn emulator running almost-perfectly onto the Pi Pico.

He was able to build his own video signal, thanks to him using the programmable IO pins to connect to a monitor, which resulted in the video seen above.

Again, it's only been a couple of days since the Pi Pico was released, but we're already seeing what its capable of.

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