It’s truly amazing how much power hackers have been able to squeeze out of the dual-core RP2040. Considering they are only Cortex-M0+ cores and not the more powerful M4 or M7 cores, generating signals like DVI and HDMI is simply amazing. This add-in card for the classic Apple ][ adds a digital video output which is significantly sharper and, of course, easier to use with modern displays and TVs.
It generates the video signal directly from the video RAM contents, and because it has total control, it can easily do 80-column output, alternative character sets and keyboard layouts. Because the communication is bidirectional, future expansion for the card could easily add features that modify RAM contents or snoop on the expansion bus. Already, a special firmware for the Apple 2e allows it to emulate a floppy drive!
Like a Pico, it has a USB-C connector for power and programming when not being used in the machine. Otherwise, it gets power from the Apple ][ and runs completely self-contained. The display emulates the classic Apple artifact colour look, though I’m sure it would be possible to convert the artifact colours into true, regular colour outputs — I wonder how that would look? If you’ve got an Apple ][ and don’t want to keep a classic CRT around for it, this is a great option to bring it into the 21st century.
