A long time ago in a galaxy really quite close by I designed a single board computer called the Microbox 2 (MB2) which was based around the 6809 and FLEX OS. It had a number of advanced (for 1982) features such as integrated EPROMdisk and RAMdisk, hi-res hardware accelerated graphics with a bitmapped text display that could use different languages and character sets (even Arabic) and a battery backed RTC and PRAM. As it had FLEX compatible drivers in EPROM, it could boot from any configured or un-configured copy of FLEX.

Recent events have given me time to look once again at an updated version of the MB2 and the Microbox 2020 (MB2K2) is the result. This time there is a combination of custom hardware and software that aims be a complete emulation of the MB2 to the point of running the original’s software without modifications.

After the MB2K2, I hope to expand into other designs, watch this space!

David Rumball - Audio, Video and Embedded Design (AVED) - Cornwall, UK