Now we can finally hook up that 45-year-old dinosaur to a modern screen without having to hunt for rare adapters. Belgian hardware company Serdashop presents the Serdavision HDMI graphics card that fills this specific hole. It enables early-age personal computers to display video to modern screens.
Serdashop releases dedicated ISA graphics card for vintage IBM 5150
The Serdavision HDMI card is aimed at systems of olden days like the early IBM 5150 PC. It serves as a drop-in replacement of the original expansion card to serve a direct video feed. The main idea behind it is to bring the old-age tech back to life with its missing digital output feature.
Specifications
- Interface: 8-bit ISA
- Core Chip: Raspberry Pi RP2350 Microcontroller
- Supported Standards: MDA, CGA, EGA, VGA, SVGA (800×600), Hercules, Tandy
- Output: HDMI (via DVI signal)
- Price: 100 EUR (around $112)
Raspberry Pi's RP2350 microcontroller is in charge of emulating the old graphics standards with the Serdavision HDMI card. It mimics the instruction set for MDA, CGA, EGA, VGA and SVGA up to 800×600 resolutions. It even supports some oddball modes such as Hercules and Tandy.
The card is attached to the 8-bit ISA interface. The bus speed ranges from 4.77MHz to 8.33MHz.
The RP2350's HSTX port provides the video output. It is a DVI-like signal. An on-board converter turns it into HDMI for connection to today's monitors.
It ensures the authentic timings/resolution of the original output. At the same time, you can get the clean digital picture out of it.
The Serdashop is offering the Serdavision HDMI for 100 EUR (~$112). You can buy it from the official company web store. It brings a dedicated option for those who want to use the classic software on modern displays.
finally a way to hook up my ibm 5150 to a modern monitor without hunting for rare adapters
does the rp2350 handle the 8-bit isa bus timing at 4.77mhz accurately or will games run too fast without proper cycle counting
the article states the core chip emulates the instruction set and ensures authentic timings for standards like cga and ega so it should handle the bus speed correctly
iirc the original ibm 5150 came with mda or cga not ega so this card covers more ground than the stock hardware
one hundred euros is steep for a piece of plastic but cheap for nostalgia tbh
using a raspberry pi microcontroller for video emulation is a clever use of the hstx port and avoids the need for complex fpga logic