I’ve made some additions to the ROM-based boot loader, so BMOW now has a proper boot logo paired with cool yet useless system diagnostics. All it needs now is a groovy start-up sound, and it will be a proper retro-80’s…

I’ve reached an exciting point in the evolution of BMOW. All of the individual bits of technology that I’ve built are now coming together, and rather than a proof-of-concept of keyboard or USB or video functions, I actually have a…

Following my experience with the video system, I decided to create a boot loader. It’s a little surprising that I never did this before, actually. While working on the video, after every tiny change to the video software, I had…

Here’s the promised better example of BMOW’s video capabilities. It demonstrates text with different foreground and background colors, and the use of text and graphics on the same screen. By using two bytes per line to control the video mode…

BMOW is now text-enabled! I stole an 8×16 bitmapped font from the X11 font set, programmed it into my character ROM, and now I can do this: OK, it would be a more impressive demo if I actually wrote some…

Yarrgh, thar be pixels! BMOW’s video system still has many minor issues to resolve, but the critical pieces are all working now. I can set up a video mode, poke bytes into video memory, and see pixels on the screen.…

Video works! Er, sort of. After fixing the HYSNC problem, I experimented with the palette chip, just to prove it was working. With a few bytes’ worth of changes, I was able to turn everything red. The monitor was still…