[rodlette]

TFA explains:

* "Graphics and sound weren’t hidden behind ‘APIs’."

* Programs were written in 8 bit assembly

* Generally, the 8 bit CPU was considered a complete package, rather than just one small piece as RV32I is.

Those sound nice to have for didactic purposes. 32 bit could do that, but the RISC-V ecosystem/community seems keener on integration with wider world, rather than keeping a small complete system.

I'll check out some 8 bit ecosystems/communities. Video game space seems active? Or maybe there's a RV32I community for writing retro style games, with some simple graphics support?

[cmrdporcupine]

I started an FPGA hobby project a few years ago (Before Covid[tm]) that tied a PicoRV32 core to my custom hand-made 80s-style "video chip" VDP type + direct access to SRAM with the hopes of making something like a "Retro-V"; boot straight to a BASIC (or Lua or something) prompt, etc. I had it supporting text generation, and most of the stuff to do simple tiles/sprites, and booting into a little custom "kernel."

I stalled once I started trying to integrate with the SD Card on my dev board. It got un-fun and then I got distracted by the apocalypse.

But I still think it's a neat idea, to tie RISC-V to that kind of "instant on" hobbyist architecture.

EDIT: looks like this "IceStation" project ended up doing mostly what I was intending, and started not long after me, but actually shipped something. Mine was targeting a Xilinx Artix-7 board, tho.

[rodlette]

> Or maybe there's a RV32I community for writing retro style games, with some simple graphics support?

Wow, https://github.com/dan-rodrigues/icestation-32 looks cool. Sorry for the comment spam. :)

[throwaway6977]

Cool link, reply more if you find them!