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From: Gordon Henderson <gordon+usenet@drogon.net>
Newsgroups: comp.sys.raspberry-pi
Subject: Re: Just got a Pi1B. What can you actually do with it these days?
Date: Wed, 11 Jun 2025 12:14:36 -0000 (UTC)
Organization: Drogon Towers
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Originator: gordon@yakko.drogon.net (gordon)

In article <kKm*zLLeA@news.chiark.greenend.org.uk>,
Theo  <theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk> wrote:
>Gordon Henderson <gordon+usenet@drogon.net> wrote:
>> In article <101teqs$1rt4d$2@dont-email.me>,
>> TronNerd82  <tronnerd82@aol.com> wrote:
>> 
>> >If you can think of any productive use-cases for an original Pi model B
>> >(not even the B+) let me know, and I'll consider it :-)
>> 
>> I have a few (dozen) of these - 1B and 1B+ (40 pin GPIO header). I run an
>> older Debian Jessie on them for Linux and am experimenting with Devuan,
>> but I also have my own bare-metal framework under which I run either my
>> own RTB Basic (a modern basic where line numbers are optional) which
>> supports high resolution graphics but not (yet) sound. I can also run
>> my own OS under the same framework which is written in BCPL which allows
>> local editing and compiling of BCPL programs.
>
>If you're going non-Linux, RISC OS runs well on the Pi1.  It was designed

I know what it is and what it was designed for. I was there in the early
days, owned an Arc, have followed it's development over the years, etc.
I'm just not interested in it right now, thanks.

>for an 0.5MB 8MHz ARM2, so a 512MB 700MHz Pi1 is ample.  It can't use
>multiple cores so the Pi1 being single core is no problem.

I have a scheme for multiple cores in my own system, (it's capable of
pre-emptive multi-tasking) but not got the energy to implement it over
multiple cores for now.

This is it in it's original incarnation on a 16Mhz 65C816 CPU demonstrating
multi-tasking:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZL1VI8ezgYc

The graphics is via a 115K serial link to a "smart" terminal running on
a Linux desktop. It uses Acorn VDU style commands for graphics, etc.

Over recent years I've ported it from the 816 to RISC-V and now to ARM32.

The Pi version has native graphics and works well on the Pi 7" screen
thing (or external HDMI). It boots to Basic or BCPL in under 2 seconds.

Thanks,

-Gordon