Microcomputer with microcontroller at a micro price: Olimex RVPC for €1 received a RISC-V chip, a PS/2 port and a D-Sub video output

Olimex has announced a single-board RVPC system equipped with a microcontroller with an open RISC-V architecture. The product will be supplied as a kit for self-soldering, which will allow it to be used for educational purposes. The manufacturer himself classifies the new product as a retro computer.

A 32-bit WCH CH32V003 RISC-V2A chip with a frequency of 48 MHz is used. There are 2 KB of SRAM and 16 KB of flash memory. There is an analog D-Sub interface for connecting a monitor (three GPIO lines for Vsync, HSync and RGB), as well as a PS/2 connector for the keyboard (two GPIO lines).

Image source: Olimex

The new product has dimensions of 50×30 mm. Power (5 V) is supplied through a separate connector. Programming of the CH32V003 microcontroller can be done via the ESP32-S2-DevKit-LiPo-USB accessory board. Among other things, a buzzer and an LED status indicator are mentioned.

Olimex provides several examples of C code for using the D-Sub interface, a Tetris demo game, a terminal emulator (RVMON) that is pre-loaded into flash memory, etc. The Olimex RVPC costs only €1. At the same time, the ESP32-S2-DevKit-LiPo-USB board will cost about €8 more. The company asks about €4 for a compatible power adapter.