Felix Queißner's Ashet Home Computer Is a Raspberry Pi RP2350-Powered Love Letter to the '80s

Vintage computing enthusiast Felix Queißner is working on a modular home microcomputer, inspired by classic computers of the 1980s — and powered by the Raspberry Pi RP2350 dual-core dual-architecture microcontroller, linked to 8MB of pseudo-static RAM (PSRAM).

"The Ashet Home Computer bridges the gap between simple microcontroller development boards and modern single-board computers, offering the processing capability to run a full graphical desktop OS while maintaining the hardware accessibility of simpler systems," Queißner promises of the system. "Built around the [Raspberry Pi] RP2350 dual-core processor, it combines sufficient computational power for a modern user interface with a transparent, education-oriented architecture. The modular expansion system, inspired by classic computer designs, allows direct hardware access while providing proper driver abstractions for portability."

While the Raspberry Pi RP2350, with its two Arm Cortex-M33 and two free and open source RISC-V Hazard3 cores running at up to 150MHz, is a very modern piece of equipment, Queißner's inspiration calls back to the modular microcomputers of the 1970s and 1980s — including the iconic Altair 8800, launched in 1974 and famous for kick-starting the personal computing revolution and setting the stage for Microsoft's success in the operating system market.

A stock ABS case houses the modules, including a core module that pairs the Raspberry Pi RP2350 with 8MB of pseudo-static RAM (PSRAM), 16MB of flash storage, a USB 1.1 host port, Fast Ethernet connectivity, a battery-backed real-time clock, and an integrated debug probe. Seven expansion slots are provided, with designs currently including a video card capable of 640×400 at 60Hz with eight bits per pixel color, a PCM soundcard with 16-bit 48kHz input and output capabilities, a USB card with four USB 1.1 Host ports, a "Basic I/O" card with eight general-purpose input/output (GPIO) pins and an I2C bus, a "Commodore Connectivity Card" that provides two serial ports compatible with Commodore 64 and Commodore 128 accessories, and a perfboard "User Expansion Card" for custom add-ons.

The system is designed to run Ashet OS, a basic operating system inspired by Amiga Workbench. "It’s an experiment in simplicity, approachability, and modern design," Queißner claims, "built to prove that you can have a responsive, hackable, and portable OS — without bloated complexity or unnecessary barriers. Whether you're a curious hacker, retro computing enthusiast, or just someone tired of waiting on modern machines, Ashet OS aims to inspire and empower."

Queißner has shared screenshots, renders, and some case mock-up photographs on the project's website; he says that "a functional cable clutter prototype" that is able to boot into the operating system and launch applications has been built, with the next stage in the process being design for manufacturing ahead of a planned launch.

"One of the goals is to make the computer available for €250 (around $300) or less," Queißner says, "but if that's possible depends on so many details that it’s hard to tell in the current phase. No matter what's the outcome of this phase, the whole computer design will be available for free under a permissive license and can be built by everyone.