PICO9918

Received my prototype PICO9918 no-cut mod PCBs for the TI-99 today. Places VGA and audio connectors externally via the DIN socket hole. Still need to design an enclosure for it. Will try one out in the next few days and report back.

Some initial GPU performance tests of the PICO9918 powered by an RP2040 vs an RP2350 version vs an F18A MK1. Very interesting results.

I have no immediate plans to switch to an RP2350-powered PICO9918, but I thought I'd design some prototype boards utilizing the awesome Pimoroni PGA2350 for testing purposes.

Initial tests show it is somewhat faster which will come in handy for the F18A compatibility mode but won't have any impact on the standard TMS9918A modes.

Extra I/Os could come in handy for configuration jumpers too.

The RP2040 powered TMS9918A VDP has another trick up its sleeve. F18A compatibility: 

Also, the list of compatible devices is still growing. The PICO9918 has now been tested on the following machines:

• Texas Instruments TI-99/4A (NTSC and PAL)
• Texas Instruments TI-99/4QI
• ColecoVision (NTSC and PAL)
• Coleco ADAM (NTSC)
• MSX
  • Casio PV-7
  • Toshiba HX-21
• NABU Personal Computer
• Powertran Cortex
• Sega SC-3000
• Sord M5
• Tomy Pyuuta

The supported devices list is getting longer...

The PICO9918 is now confirmed to work on the following systems:

• Texas Instruments TI-99/4A (NTSC and PAL)
• Texas Instruments TI-99/4QI
• CBS ColecoVision (NTSC and PAL)
• Powertran Cortex
• Casio PV-7 (MSX)
• NABU Personal Computer

Significant progress has been made towards F18A support on the PICO9918. Check out this short video showing it off to varying degrees of success.

The first batch is now available on Tindie. For those in US/Canada, they will soon be available at arcadeshopper.com

PICO9918 from Troy Schrapel on Tindie

They have arrived! My partially assembled PICO9918 v1.0 boards are here. Of course, I had to complete one to try them out... Success!

The first v1.0 board works perfectly :) Now, it will take some time for me to complete the assembly of all 50 boards and their VGA dongles, but once I do (or more likely before all 50 are done). I'll put them up on my Tindie store.

Just ordered 50x mostly-assembled PICO9918 boards. Here's some pics of my hand-built examples so far.

Hoping the PCBA shop will make producing these bad boys far more painless than they currently are :D. So far, I've managed to hand-build a whole five (5) of the v0.4 boards and one of those is dead :D :( . They take a lot of time to assemble, then test, diagnose and fix the various reflow issues which crop up. Looking forward to not having to do that. Or at less a lot less of it.

Apologies in advance for the vertical video.

Works great! Got the blinkenlights. Much lower profile than v0.3. Now to build a few more...