Adafruit Fruit Jam – An RP2350 mini computer running classic Macintosh

I have very high hopes for this board, and have been playing with RP2350 with DVI out for a while (I have one of these on order but it hasn't arrived yet, but other boards[1] exist).

Emulation is a sweet spot because if you race the beam, there is no compositor latency. Basically every retro computer with less than a quarter meg of VRAM is fair game (whether a framebuffer or not).

I have a bit of time off this fall and intend to do some fun things.

[1]: https://github.com/DusterTheFirst/pico-dvi-rs/wiki/RP2350-DV...

I guess the era of actual mini computers (which were larger than the typical computer of today which were originally called micro computers) is so far in the past that the term can be reused to mean "machines smaller than current computers"? Nanocomputer would be the consistent naming.

It's been a project I want to embark on to buy a non-functional Macintosh unit and put this in there with the emulator.

https://learn.adafruit.com/fruit-jam-mac-emulator

I took the Pi Zero route a few months back and have a reincarnated Quadra in the 3D printed case of an SE/30.

There's this one too: https://jcm-1.com/product/picomicromac/

This reminds me, I wanted the class of device that an iPod Touch falls into to be called "nano tablets" for a while in the early 2010s. It bugged me that it was basically a "phone" without the phone part. I hate to think you can only call something by its official branded name. Also, if you're using an actual phone without a SIM, it feels similarly silly to call it a phone.

That being said, I don't recall if anyone else did make something quite like an iPod Touch, and now it's dead as well.

Mini PC seemed to be the term that was being settled on, though I do see mini computer used where I'd expect to see nano computer as well. This is the first time I've seen anyone in tech use the term mini computer instead of nano, however.

Perhaps they're not teaching the under 40s what a mini computer is.