Tindie

Name: Rosco-m68k Revision 1.23
SKU: 20901
Price: 50.00 USD
Availability: Discontinued
Rating: 4.56 (4 reviews)

We are seeing many shipping delays, especially for international orders. Please check individual product pages for details. More info on COVID-19 and Shipping

Rosco-m68k Revision 1.23

(4 Reviews)

The powerful, flexible, hacker-friendly 16/32-bit Retro Computer!

Designed by The Really Old-School Company Ltd in United Kingdom

2021-04-05T15:06:04.613Z-unpopulated_back.jpg

2021-04-05T15:06:04.613Z-unpopulated_front.jpg

Retired

This product is no longer available for sale. The seller may be offering an improved version or it may be hanging out on the beach, enjoying the retired life.

The powerful, flexible, hacker-friendly 16/32-bit Retro Computer!

What is this? Note that the base model includes the bare PCB only, select the optional components you'd like included when purchasing the product. Note that we unfortunately are no longer able to su…

What is this?

Note that the base model includes the bare PCB only, select the optional components you'd like included when purchasing the product.

Note that we unfortunately are no longer able to supply the MC68010 or MC68901 with the kits, due to diminishing supply of these components in retail quantity. You will need to source these ICs yourself. For most things, an MC68000 will work instead of a MC68010!

Updated board revision for 2021! Now shipping with Firmware 1.3 and SD Card support

The rosco_m68k is a self-build Motorola 68k computer designed for experimentation, education and hacking.

Featuring a 68010 16/32-bit processor running at 10MHz, 1MB RAM, 16KB ROM (Up to 64KB supported) and advanced IO capabilities thanks to the on-board MC68901 Multi-Function Peripheral, the rosco_m68k is easy to build and lots of fun to hack on.

And with our open-source serial firmware, Easy68K-compatible IO and simple starter projects for your own code, the rosco_m68k is ready to run your programs just as soon as you've soldered it up!

Features

MC68010 16/32-bit CPU
1MB RAM
16KB ROM
On-board UART (9600 BPS as standard)
SD Card support (requires Arduino SD adapter)
5 easily-accessible interrupt-capable GPIOs
Two on-board, interrupt-capable programmable timers
Expansion connector with support for both new and legacy (MC6800) peripherals
Serial bootloader firmware loads programs via Kermit protocol
Easy68K IO Compatibility Layer in the firmware
Various example programs and quick-start code for your own!

Order the parts, grab your soldering iron, and join in the fun of putting your own computer together!

Who can build this?

The rosco_m68k is designed to be easy to solder, and no special skills or equipment are needed! Simply grab a regular (ideally temperature-controlled) soldering iron, some solder (we like lead-free 1mm diameter) and have at it!

All-through-hole design, only basic soldering skills required
4-layer PCB so there's plenty of space around components, no fiddly bits
High-quality solder mask and tented vias reduce the risk of hard-to-spot bridges
Fully-socketed option at checkout to eliminate the risk of heat-damage to the ICs

Where supplied, all new components are the very highest-quality we can get our hands on. Some components are (by virtue of their not being produced any more!) pre-owned, surplus or new-old-stock, but we carefully recondition and test every component before it leaves our workshop to ensure that you won't be disappointed by non-functional parts.

What else do I need?

In addition to the base PCB and components and soldering gear, we recommend the following:

Serial to USB (FTDI) converter to connect your rosco_m68k to your PC
USB to Dupont power lead (can be easily made at home from any USB cable)
Multimeter for debugging
EEPROM programmer (Required if pre-programmed ROMs and glue logic options are not selected)

When working with the rosco_m68k, we find the following useful:

Logic analyser for testing and development
Solderless breadboards and jumper wires
Arduino, or other MCU

What about software?

Just like the hardware, the firmware and software for the rosco_m68k are open source, and we're constantly improving and adding new features to it. You'll find everything you need at https://github.com/rosco-m68k including the standard firmware, example projects in both assembly and C, and a bunch of standard libraries you can use in your own projects to do things like serial output and GPIOs.

Getting started with writing your own code is easy thanks to our comprehensive instructions on building a GCC toolchain for m68k, and if you use Home-brew (https://brew.sh) you can simply install the toolchain with a couple of commands! (Note that Mac or Linux is recommended for development. A VM can be used when working under Windows).

Programs are loaded to the board via serial link using the Kermit protocol, and all support code is provided by the firmware and standard libraries to make writing these programs as easy as writing programs for your PC.

The standard firmware additionally provides an Easy68K-compatible IO layer, meaning that your existing Easy68k simulator code can probably be run on the real hardware with minimal changes (if any). (See http://www.easy68k.com for more about Easy68K).

And of course, if you're so inclined, you can completely replace the standard firmware with your own code, giving you total control :)

Review Breakdown

Average Ratings

Product: (4.75)

Documentation: (4.50)

Shipping: (4.25)

Communication: (4.75)

Richard | April 15, 2021

No hitches apart from slow component delivery due to COVID.

The BOM has been easy to satisfy apart from the 68010. Still waiting.

The serial interface could be improved if the pin out matched commonly available USB serial modules.

Response from The Really Old-School Company Ltd | May 9, 2021

Thanks for your review, and sorry to hear you are still waiting for a CPU. These are unfortunately becoming quite hard to find.

The pinout of the serial interface on the 1.2 board is designed to match most commonly-available FTDI USB serial modules, but sadly they do vary a bit and so not all of them match :(

Thanks again, and happy hacking!
Ross

Alexander | Dec. 12, 2020

good kit and nice change from CP/M projects

I've built a number of retro-homebrew systems and find the Rosco-m68k a nice change from having to use CP/M and its ancient commands and compilers. Having a GCC-based toolchain opens up all sorts of possibilities to port existing modern code. If you're on Linux, I recommend still using 'brew' to install the toolchain, as there may be problems getting a current GCC to build the older version used in the toolchain.

Persistent storage would be nice, but it's not that bad to upload programs each time considering the tradeoff of not having to put up with CP/M.

Response from The Really Old-School Company Ltd | March 14, 2021

Thanks for the review Alexander, really glad you're happy with the kit :) A modern toolchain and development experience are an important goal for this project. Rest assured that various options for persistent storage is being worked on already, and will be available very soon :)

Thanks again,
Ross

Matthew | Dec. 4, 2020

Really nice kit.

Super kit. Worked pretty much straightaway with great software support and is building a nice little community.

Response from The Really Old-School Company Ltd | March 14, 2021

Thanks for the review Matthew, really glad you're happy with the kit :)

Thanks again,
Ross

John | Nov. 9, 2020

Great value if you love the M680x0 series processors

I had been thinking for years of designing and building another 680x0 platform system since I had to get rid of my Amigas, Atari St and Compupro systems years ago. Rosco beat me to it and did a great job. Assembly is straightforward, and the provided software is enough to bootstrap any competent programmer's projects (mine is for a retro CPM-68k system). Required tools - soldering iron with small tip and heat control, needle nose pliers, wire cutters and a VOM minimally. Nice additions: Oscilloscope and/or logic analyzer (16 channel recommended), good ones can be acquired for under $200 each on Amazon. Knowledge of assembler and/or C programming is required to move beyond the excellent base code that is provided, though at the rate they are improving the product, other options may soon be available. Documentation is good, but more regarding details (power requirements, troubleshooting, assembly options) would be an improvement. However, that said the discord community is strong and supportive and Rosco and company do a great job in assisting with any problem that occurs. Fabulous support. And they listen. Very good job! The only major issue is not under their control: shipping. If you are outside the U.K. expect to possibly have issues with the GALs and possibly the ROMS. Reason: The brits are very good about scanning packages for unpleasant things and those devices, which spew a lot of high energy radiation, tend to wipe the GALs and perhaps the ROMs too. So it would be recommended to pull the GITHUB repository for the project and verify the coding of those components before turning on the switch. I found out the hard way. But I highly recommend the kit and the vendor.

Retired

This product is no longer available for sale. The seller may be offering an improved version or it may be hanging out on the beach, enjoying the retired life.