Pi:NextPi

NextPi

NextPi 1 was designed for a 1GB SD card, and will not take advantage of larger SD cards.

NextPi 2 is designed for to use all of a 16GB microSD card (some brands of SD cards aren't a full 16GB in size, and have been known to cause problems) - it will not work on smaller cards, and like it's predecessor, will not expand to expose the space of larger cards.

Synopsis

NextPi was a customised DietPi version distributed with the original "KS1" nexts, it has been superseeded by NextPi2, an even more customised distro - which works on both KS1 and KS2 nexts (and all other compatible clones) as long as the SD card is large enough (>=16GB).

All NextPi versions are optimised for Read Only filesystems (making them safe to turn off without a clean shutdown) and are intended with the specific use of embedded in an 8-bit computer in mind, especially the ability to power the computer off without issuing a shutdown command.

The term Accelerator is somewhat of a misnomer, technologically. It's not an accelerator in the terms that it accelerates the next itself, but it permits the execution of code on a much faster processor - that of the Pi Zero. Think of it as a co-processor, or "companion computer".

The Linux install that makes up NextPi is not usable as a "General Purpose" operating system due to the read only nature of the main filesystem and lack of network connection support as standard. The read only nature helps minimise any breaking changes to the operating system that could prevent future patches installing correctly as well as the aforementioned "easy power-off".

NextPi does have writable FAT16 user partitions which can be used for user software development, etc. For developed games using the Pi for media playback, and executing assistant code `/ram` is more suited (see the documentation included with NextPi about filesystems for more details) or leveraging the NextPi2 Persistent Cache system, managed by the nextpi-cache CLI API, to allow games to upload new functions one, and use them repeatedly after power-cycle.

Features

• TZX tape emulation (including accelerated loading at up-to x8 speed)
• Virtual Sound-Card as dedicated Next DAC channel. Currently implimented music players that use this:
  • Amiga MOD (accurate)
  • Atari SNDH (accurate)
  • C64 SID (inaccurate, some analog filters are appoximations)
  • General MIDI synthesis (accuracy configurable based on song complexity)
    • Additional loadable soundfonts: Roland General Sound included, user changable
    • User programmable soundfonts: Game/Platform specific upload of sounds/samples/wavetables
  • MP3 DAC (accurate)
  • WAV (accurate, 2ed channel - simultanious to Next WAV decoding/DAC use)
  • Text to speech
• Second Screen / Monitor support at user defined resolutions up to 1080P
  • Bundled decoders for MPEG, JPEG, PNG & BMP
• USB Host Interface permitting user-definable device drivers/accessories
• Accelerated checksum/validation features (including encryption/decryption)
• Local file handling on the pi, including asset caching (permitting user plugins/additions/development environments to persist across powercycles)
• Built-in support for advanced development tools such as sjasmplus and multiple versions of z88dk

Plus a user friendly scriptable API, including python, for easy automation and creation of new features and upgradable without opening the Next to add new features via NextPiUI.

Release Summary

Current Public Stable NextPi1 Release: 0.99D - download site
Current Public Stable NextPi2 Release: 1.92D - download site
Current Public Testing NextPi2 Release: N/A - public testing versions are handled via Discord
Current Private Testing NextPi2 Release: 1.93A - private testing versions are not available for public download

Getting Started - A User

• SUPervisor

Getting Started - A Developer

• Basic Concepts
• Communication Devices

• CLI API