Olimex's Near-One-Dollar RISC-V Single-Board Computer, the RVPC, Gets a Working BASIC Interpreter
Now you too can program like it's the 1980s all over again for just a buck and change.
Bulgarian open hardware specialist Olimex has announced a new feature for its one-Euro RISC-V single-board computer, the RVPC: a working BASIC interpreter, for the real 1980s home computing experience.
"Yesterday on [the] RVPC Discord channel we got news from roglio (Leandro Zaccaria)," Olimex founder Tsvetan Usunov writes of the release. "RVPC now [has] BASIC implemented! To free more flash [memory] Leandro had to optimize the VGA generator code."
Usunov first unveiled the RVPC back in May last year, after a lightning talk at TuxCon 2024 and the idea of building a fully-functional standalone microcomputer from the cheapest possible processor: a WCH Electronics CH32V003 32-bit RISC-V microcontroller. The board includes a VGA-compatible analog video output, a PS/2 connector for a keyboard, and an on-board buzzer for audio — using up all the available general-purpose input/output (GPIO) pins on the low-cost chip.
A small bill of materials means a low cost: Usunov sells the RVPC for just €1 (around $1.13) as a soldering kit. Despite that, it's a fully-functional microcomputer with Wozmon-inspired monitor, a handful of games, and now a TinyBasic interpreter.
The interpreter supports the following commands: "GOTO", "GOSUB", "RETURN", "FOR", "TO", "STEP", "NEXT", "IF", "REM", "STOP", "INPUT", "PRINT", "LET", "RND", "ABS", "SIZE", "LIST", "RUN", "NEW "", SAVE "", "LOAD", "CLS", ",", ";", "-", "+", "*", "/", "(", ")", ">=", "#", ">", "=", "<=", "<", and "@". "This is pretty impressive," Usunov says, "when you take into account the limited resources [the] CH32V003 [chips] have!"
The source code for Zaccaria's interpreter is available on GitHub under an unspecified license; the RVPC is available to order on the Olimex store for €1 (around $1.13) before shipping. The board's design files are also available on GitHub under the strongly reciprocal version of the CERN Open Hardware License Version 2.