Nime Computer: What is it?

Overview

The Nime Computer is a complete usable computing system implemented in a single ARM Cortex M0 microcontroller.

This controller is wired to support scanning a 48 key membrane keyboard, drive an LCD graphical display, non-volatile storage to an external EEProm chip and also support Serial, Digial and Analogue ports.

There is 10Kb of onboard SRAM to support the current program (code and variables)

A tiny operating system automatically looks after keyboard scanning, screen update, fonts, cursor, sound and a tiny filing system

Keyboard

The keyboard is connected directly to the Nime Computer PCB. The microcontroller scans the keyboard in one if it's background tasks and feeds any typed characters to a buffered input stream.

LCD Screen

The screen is a small 8 line by 40 character LCD, supporting bitmap graphics.

Th computer outputs text to this screen and handles scrolling as necessary.

Filing System

There is a very simple filing system that allows basic programs to be saved and loaded to the on-board EEProm chip.

Language intepreter

The computer runs a simple BASIC language intepreter that allows simples programs to written and debugged on the computer itself.

How to get up and running -->