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Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : FRANK OS - Win95
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| bfwolf Senior Member  Joined: 03/01/2025 Location: GermanyPosts: 235 |
Found by random yesterday:  FRANK OS Turns a Microcontroller Into a Tiny Retro Desktop PC Based on FreeRTOS, this operating system has a start menu, file manager, and a terminal. Applications are compiled as standalone ARM ELF binaries and loaded from an SD card. The OS also includes a MOS2 compatibility layer for running Murmulator OS 2 applications. (Quotes from the website) https://itsfoss.com/news/frank-os/ https://github.com/rh1tech/frankos?tab=readme-ov-file MMBasic is also included!  I find that interesting and promising. Could be fun!  Regards, bfwolf |
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| Volhout Guru  Joined: 05/03/2018 Location: NetherlandsPosts: 5859 |
bfwolf, Interesting to see how they stripped MMBasic. To make MMbasic run in a window, all graphics must be re-done. A huge task if you ask me. Volhout PicomiteVGA PETSCII ROBOTS |
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| matherp Guru Joined: 11/12/2012 Location: United KingdomPosts: 11216 |
Could be MMbasic for DOS. i.e. Geoff's original |
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Plasmamac Guru Joined: 31/01/2019 Location: GermanyPosts: 611 |
Haha  Plasma |
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| bfwolf Senior Member Joined: 03/01/2025 Location: GermanyPosts: 235 |
No, it seems to be a relatively recent PicoMite variant, already with structs! https://github.com/rh1tech/frankos/blob/main/apps/source/basic/MMBasic.h Perhaps it only runs in fullscreen mode? But maybe we can learn something by taking a closer look? Edit: By the way: The project also uses the pshell that I recently presented here – including a C compiler on the Pico2! https://github.com/lurk101/pshell Edited 2026-03-10 19:54 by bfwolf |
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| Volhout Guru Joined: 05/03/2018 Location: NetherlandsPosts: 5859 |
Nope.... from here  Edited 2026-03-10 19:52 by Volhout PicomiteVGA PETSCII ROBOTS |
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Geoffg Guru Joined: 06/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 3356 |
It looks like the MMBasic is the PicoMite V5.09.00. I have not tested it to see if it is complete, but, if it is, it is a remarkable accomplishment. In fact, the whole FRANK OS is remarkable. Geoff Geoff Graham - http://geoffg.net |
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| bfwolf Senior Member Joined: 03/01/2025 Location: GermanyPosts: 235 |
https://github.com/rh1tech/frankos/blob/main/apps/source/basic/Version.h #define VERSION "6.02.01b6" // define the version number Yes indeed! And that's thanks in no small part to you, @Geoff, and you, @Peter! |
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Mixtel90 Guru Joined: 05/10/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 8769 |
It would have been so much nicer if the M2 board (the target hardware) could have been fitted into a sensible enclosure. I really don't like having plugs stuck out of the side of the box. It annoys me. One of my pet hates about the RPi. lol It looks like a really nice desktop system though. :) Mick Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs |
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Martin H. Guru Joined: 04/06/2022 Location: GermanyPosts: 1447 |
the only question is... Does it run PETSCII ROBOTS Here is a short introductory video. Edited 2026-03-10 22:15 by Martin H. 'no comment |
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| Mixtel90 Guru Joined: 05/10/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 8769 |
Hmmm... It appears that the picture of the "Frank M2" board that I found was actually the M1. The M2 appears to use the RP2350B. Doesn't fix the problem of having connectors all over the place though. :( Edited 2026-03-10 22:50 by Mixtel90 Mick Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs |
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| Volhout Guru Joined: 05/03/2018 Location: NetherlandsPosts: 5859 |
Connectors on all sides... This is all due to the 10x10cm price at JLC. Spend a little more on PCB, and buy a nice box for it. Volhout PicomiteVGA PETSCII ROBOTS |
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| JohnS Guru Joined: 18/11/2011 Location: United KingdomPosts: 4304 |
Looks to be very well documented, very ambitious and ... how did we not know about it ages ago? (Apologies if it's just me that didn't!) So far all I've thought is that it could do with more of a name check & thank you for Geoff & Peter (at the least). John |
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| bfwolf Senior Member Joined: 03/01/2025 Location: GermanyPosts: 235 |
I'm wondering if the GPIO layout (usage) is very unusual? Is there perhaps another piece of hardware with DVI from this forum that would be compatible? I'm a bit lost. I could kick myself for not having suitable hardware with DVI and PS/2 for a keyboard and mouse... Any baseboard I could plug the Pimoroni Pico+2 into? I'm really itching to test it and experience it firsthand. I guess I'll have to do some soldering, perhaps with a perfboard and some pre-made modules for SD card, HDMI, and PS/2, as soon as I have some free time. Or perhaps I can find a board that's available to order (without customs issues), for example, from Adafruit... ..First commits on Feb 27, 2026 Brand new.. bfwolf |
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| lizby Guru Joined: 17/05/2016 Location: United StatesPosts: 3742 |
You might want to check out Peter's HDMI (DVI) PCB: PicoMiteHDMIUSB motherboard reference design. Latest post with Gerbers: HDMIUSB Recommended is to purchase 5 from JLCPCB with everything soldered on except the Pico2 (maybe they have that now). If I recall correctly, it was about $90USD for 5 boards, and I soldered on the Pico2 and added the RTC coin cell. But this week I should receive Mick's design for the WeAct RP2350B which has HDMI out and the WeAct board ($5) takes PSRAM. That should be a very capable option at a lower cost. PicoMite, Armmite F4, SensorKits, MMBasic Hardware, Games, etc. on FOTS |
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| Mixtel90 Guru Joined: 05/10/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 8769 |
I looked at the GPIO requirements for this with a view to making my own board. Most of it is doable apart from the I2S. I've no idea how he's driven it with only a clock and one data line. I'm not sure if I could configure a module to work like that. The PS2, HDMI and SD card are fine. Remember though, this isn't running MMBasic so the normal GPIO usage for MMBasic won't work. The hardware has to be connected to those specific pins as the software doesn't appear to be able to reconfigure them unless you recompile it. For this reason FRANK OS probably won't run on any unmodified MMBasic boards. Unfortunately he doesn't appear to have made the schematic for the Frank M2 board with the RP2350B available, only the RP2350A. Mick Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs |
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| bfwolf Senior Member Joined: 03/01/2025 Location: GermanyPosts: 235 |
Unfortunately, orders from outside the EU to the EU, and especially to Germany, have become very complicated and expensive due to customs formalities and fees. It's no longer enjoyable. This is intentional, to make imports from China more difficult.  bfwolf. |
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| lizby Guru Joined: 17/05/2016 Location: United StatesPosts: 3742 |
Such an effort has been made in the U.S., but so far, for me, and at the scale of my orders (rarely above $15USD), I see little difference except for maybe a 15-20% increase in the very nominal shipping cost. I recently paid less than $6 for 5 RP2350-Zero breakout PCBs from JLC. PicoMite, Armmite F4, SensorKits, MMBasic Hardware, Games, etc. on FOTS |
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| Mixtel90 Guru Joined: 05/10/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 8769 |
FRANK OS is very clever and very pretty. At the end of the day though it's also pretty limited in what it can run and the screen is always 640x480 with 16 (Windows) colours. His GPIO pin allocations work out nicely for a PGA2350, Adafruit DVI breakout board and level shifter/PS2 socket though. :) Mick Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs |
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| bfwolf Senior Member Joined: 03/01/2025 Location: GermanyPosts: 235 |
Considering how new the project is, it's quite surprising what already works in version 1.0. Let's see what other new features are available in future versions... I took a look at the RP2350's QMI some time ago: Each QSPI CS has four "Address Translation Registers" (so 8 in total), each capable of mapping up to 4MB of logical addresses from the 16MB per CS to physical addresses within the 16MB per CS. So, each CS has four areas with a fixed start address but variable page size, mapped to physical addresses within the 16MB range. It's essentially a small MMU! I've seen forum posts discussing using this for virtual memory in a multitasking OS, but haven't seen any concrete implementations yet. I'm curious to see when someone will actually use it. This would allow for the implementation of loadable executables in an operating system, linked to fixed logical addresses with separate segments for code (e.g. Flash), data (in PSRAM), and stack and heap (also in PSRAM). Shared segments (2 shared-code/FLASH + 1 shared-data/PSRAM) would even remain for the application and the operating system! bfwolf |
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