Guru
Joined: 31/12/2012
Location: New ZealandPosts: 2541
| Posted: 04:36am 12 May 2026 |
as Jim suggests, when Geoff originally wrote mmbasic (around 2011) the 'MM' stood for "MaxiMite". those MaxiMites had mmbasic running on a PIC32MX695 (or MX795) microcontroller:
https://geoffg.net/MonoMaximiteDesign.html
it was a machine with 128k or RAM that generated a monochrome composite or VGA video output, and connected to a PS/2 keyboard and SD card. BASIC programs could be stored in on-chip flash (hence the SD card was optional), and as i recall were loaded into RAM to be run. following the original (monochrome) MaxiMite there was also a Colour MaxiMite released that could generate colour VGA output. all were based on the same PIC32MX695 (or MX795) chip. there was one hardware variant called the "Mini MaxiMite" for embedded usage that had pretty much just the PIC32MX695 (or MX795) on a small rectangular board intended for being embedded in projects. note that the MX695/795 also had on-chip USB support, and all variants could also be tethered back to a PC running a VT100 terminal emulator acting as a virtual console.
these machines were making the "Maximum" use of a single chip to recreate the 1980's computing experience!
later on, Geoff released a reworked variant of mmbasic that ran on the considerably smaller PIC32MX150 (and later MX170), giving rise to the MicroMite family:
https://geoffg.net/micromite.html
the MicroMite had no SD card or video support, and ran BASIC programs directly from on-chip flash memory (as opposed to loading into RAM first). the chip used was the 28-pin DIP version of the PIC32MX150 (and later MX170). at this point the mmbasic they ran was now referred to as "MicroMite Basic". for a console they exclusively talked to a TTL/serial VT100 terminal - unlike the MX695/795, the MX150/170 chips had no USB hardware support on-chip.
following on there were 'bigger' variants of the MicroMite that used a PIC32MX470 chip and later other PIC32s:
https://geoffg.net/Explore64.html
essentially, these bigger variants brought back in support for SD card, video, and keyboard. it was around this time that Peter Mather became involved with porting mmbasic to newer chips that were available, including the CMM2 that used an ST chip.
when COVID arrived, chip supplies dried up, and for several years about the only chip that one could readily obtain was the RP2040 - a fortunate arrival on the scene just before lockdowns hit... after some consternation over the 2040's limited abilities Peter finally managed to shoe-horn mmbasic into it, giving rise to the PicoMite. i often wonder if the version of mmbasic that the pico chips run should not be renamed to "PicoMite Basic", ie PMbasic.
please do chip in if anyone has a better memory of events that i do. i may well have got some of the details muddled!
cheers,
rob :-)
Edited 2026-05-12 21:08 by robert.rozee