[Kilian] sent in a link to a color version of a tiny educational computer. It’s called the Quantumite and it’s designed to be a throwback to the early 80s microcomputers we all grew up on.
The Quantumite is a clone of the Maximite, the tiny single board computer / BASIC interpreter designed by [Geoff Graham]. Both the Quantumite and Maximite are meant to be a throwback to the amazingly simple microcomputers of the early 80s, giving the 8-year-olds of today the simplicity of a BASIC compter most Hackaday readers had back in 1980s.
Both the Maximite and Quantumite are powered by the same 32-bit PIC microcontroller and have connections for a composite or VGA monitor, SD card, and PS/2 keyboard. Unlike the Maximite, the Quantumite can display 8 colors on its screen; a great addition that somehow seems even more retro than a monochrome display.
As far as getting the younglings to learn programming, we couldn’t think of a better tool than the ‘boot straight into a programming language’ Maximite. With a retro-impressive 3 bits of color, it’s sure to be a hit with the schoolchildren this computer is targeted at.
Would be fun to find some old 1980’s busted computer and replace the circuit-board filled with TTL with one of these.
The Maximite is an under-appreciated dev board IMHO. Lots of built-in functions and IO capability, built-in editor, built-in video and sound, built-in filesystem and mass storage. And from places like circuitgizmos, cheap too.
Update: The September “Silicon Chip” mag. features a new colour Maximite, c/w upgraded firmware & numerous hardware tweaks (Arduino shield capable etc). See =>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maximite
I have bought a Duinomite, I got it for £15 and a case for £5 from Ebay. I am dead impressed with the project.
i have just bought a maximite 2 for what i got for i am not inpressed i wonted to load on a sd card all the old software that i used back in the 80’s it does not wont to know i have had some basic stuff work and i have watched a youtube video with it working and it looks good, i know how to load program files onto a sd card and they list on the maximite 2 and that is all it will do if the have one and it sounds like you do have a go at what i am trying to do and can you please email me with your findings please thank you.