That's very interesting Freddy. I would find it much more interesting if the PicoMEM 2 would just simply have an intelligent MPU-401 interface instead of just some generic General MIDI. That and with all the audio options you are adding the PicoMEM is gonna be a one for all sound card.

PicoMEM: Sound Card Edition 😀

My PS/2 Model 30/286 is begging for the PicoMem2. Now if only you could bless us with an MCA version for my Model 55… One can dream. 😉

Linoleum wrote on 2026-01-16, 03:37:

My PS/2 Model 30/286 is begging for the PicoMem2. Now if only you could bless us with an MCA version for my Model 55… One can dream. 😉

Nope 😀

FreddyV wrote on 2026-01-15, 16:45:

General MIDI rendering is in Progress for the PicoMEM 2.

Hi Freddy, do you have a target feature set for the public release of the PicoMEM2? Any chance of Fluidsynth/Generaluse GS soundfont or MUNT instance? There is nowhere on the PicoMEM2 board to plug in my WP32 McCake 🙁

NeoG_ wrote on 2026-02-06, 01:06:

Hi Freddy, do you have a target feature set for the public release of the PicoMEM2? Any chance of Fluidsynth/Generaluse GS soundfont or MUNT instance? There is nowhere on the PicoMEM2 board to plug in my WP32 McCake 🙁

Pico 2 is not even close to be powerful enough for MUNT, so in that case I also wish that Freddy would include wavetable header with MPU-401. Perfect to use a wave blaster Pi, or a dedicated classic General MIDI wavetable DB.

carlostex wrote on 2026-02-06, 01:46:

NeoG_ wrote on 2026-02-06, 01:06:

Hi Freddy, do you have a target feature set for the public release of the PicoMEM2? Any chance of Fluidsynth/Generaluse GS soundfont or MUNT instance? There is nowhere on the PicoMEM2 board to plug in my WP32 McCake 🙁

Pico 2 is not even close to be powerful enough for MUNT, so in that case I also wish that Freddy would include wavetable header with MPU-401. Perfect to use a wave blaster Pi, or a dedicated classic General MIDI wavetable DB.

Hi,

PicoMEM should support USB MIDI adapter, be patient 😀

I don't want to transform the PicoMEM to a PicoGUS even if it PicoMEM 2 will be almost like PicoGUS

Also, the General MIDI implementation is done using .SF2 file
I still have to improve the code to be able to change the SF2 and support big ones (Here it is 4Mb)

NeoG_ wrote on 2026-02-06, 01:06:

FreddyV wrote on 2026-01-15, 16:45:

General MIDI rendering is in Progress for the PicoMEM 2.

Hi Freddy, do you have a target feature set for the public release of the PicoMEM2?
Any chance of Fluidsynth/Generaluse GS soundfont or MUNT instance? There is nowhere on the PicoMEM2 board to plug in my WP32 McCake 🙁

Hi,

What the PicoMEM can do in General midi is quite nice already.
I prefer to challenge myself to do thing than take the simple path and just plug an external MIDI device 😀

I still have to think about what I want to have ready for the Release.
Normally, I want to have GUS and Sound Blaster totally Ready, and finish code to implement the boards hardware differences

CD Emulation as well, I think for later

FreddyV wrote on 2026-02-06, 21:34:

Hi, […]
Show full quote

carlostex wrote on 2026-02-06, 01:46:

NeoG_ wrote on 2026-02-06, 01:06:

Hi Freddy, do you have a target feature set for the public release of the PicoMEM2? Any chance of Fluidsynth/Generaluse GS soundfont or MUNT instance? There is nowhere on the PicoMEM2 board to plug in my WP32 McCake 🙁

Pico 2 is not even close to be powerful enough for MUNT, so in that case I also wish that Freddy would include wavetable header with MPU-401. Perfect to use a wave blaster Pi, or a dedicated classic General MIDI wavetable DB.

Hi,

PicoMEM should support USB MIDI adapter, be patient 😀

I don't want to transform the PicoMEM to a PicoGUS even if it PicoMEM 2 will be almost like PicoGUS

Also, the General MIDI implementation is done using .SF2 file
I still have to improve the code to be able to change the SF2 and support big ones (Here it is 4Mb)

Ahh, .SF2 support! That is cool!

I wonder what approximate SF2 size might be possible in future, with this hardware.

FreddyV wrote on 2026-02-06, 21:34:

Hi, […]
Show full quote

Hi,

PicoMEM should support USB MIDI adapter, be patient 😀

I don't want to transform the PicoMEM to a PicoGUS even if it PicoMEM 2 will be almost like PicoGUS

Also, the General MIDI implementation is done using .SF2 file
I still have to improve the code to be able to change the SF2 and support big ones (Here it is 4Mb)

I understand. I just think its a lost opportunity, would be cool for it to be a one card solution, which would be specially important for systems that only have 1 or 2 ISA slots. Also SF2 won't cover the uniqueness of some dedicated daughterboards, like with Yamaha XG. I mean if it's gonna have GUS and SB...might as well have MPU-401 and header.

Linoleum wrote on 2026-01-16, 03:37:

My PS/2 Model 30/286 is begging for the PicoMem2. Now if only you could bless us with an MCA version for my Model 55… One can dream. 😉

PicoMEM v1 already works great in these machines...

carlostex wrote on 2026-02-07, 09:28:

FreddyV wrote on 2026-02-06, 21:34:

Hi, […]
Show full quote

Hi,

PicoMEM should support USB MIDI adapter, be patient 😀

I don't want to transform the PicoMEM to a PicoGUS even if it PicoMEM 2 will be almost like PicoGUS

Also, the General MIDI implementation is done using .SF2 file
I still have to improve the code to be able to change the SF2 and support big ones (Here it is 4Mb)

I understand. I just think its a lost opportunity, would be cool for it to be a one card solution, which would be specially important for systems that only have 1 or 2 ISA slots. Also SF2 won't cover the uniqueness of some dedicated daughterboards, like with Yamaha XG. I mean if it's gonna have GUS and SB...might as well have MPU-401 and header.

Since PicoMem includes a USB port, we can probably just use a USB‑to‑MIDI adapter for whatever device you prefer. A dedicated MIDI header would take up quite a bit of real estate on the card anyway.

My niche user case would be my euro-pc 1. It only has one isa card slot.
Picomem with wavetable header / mpu401 midi port, would be perfect one card solution.
One could get ram expansion from 512k to 640, sd card hard drive and mt-32 sound from various mt32pi projects.

Linoleum wrote on 2026-02-07, 13:53:

Since PicoMem includes a USB port, we can probably just use a USB‑to‑MIDI adapter for whatever device you prefer. A dedicated MIDI header would take up quite a bit of real estate on the card anyway.

Sure but that would require another device to host a DB, and then power that device etc...

Well, this is Freddy's project and it's up to him. I just thought if doing GUS and SB, you might as well. Would be a perfect one card solution to people with limited number of ISA slots, and compact systems.

I’ve had the idea of some kind of “smart” USB add-on card for vintage hardware that you could just plug multiple modern USB devices into, possibly through a USB hub, and then the card would present the connected USB devices to the host system as native legacy devices, negating the need to implement a USB stack for DOS and drivers and emulators and such.

So plug in a USB MIDI adapter, and the card would present it as an MPU-401 MIDI controller to the host systems, preferably with support for Intelligent Mode as well as UART mode. Plug in a USB sound device and the card would present it to the host system as a Sound Blaster compatible sound card. Plug in a USB game controller and the card would present it to the system as a 15-pin PC game port adapter. Plug in a USB mouse and the card would present it to the host PC either as a serial mouse or a bus mouse. Plug in a USB stick or external hard drive, and the system would detect it as an (XT-)IDE device. Wi-Fi dongles would show up as NE2000 network adapters. And so on, and so forth.

I guess the PicoMEM, being a software-defined expansion card, could be made to support all this. A lot of such projects exist for some of these things, but having a single card that could emulate all this, effectively forming a bridge between common USB peripherals and virtual legacy devices that are compatible with hardware that was natively supported back in the DOS era, that would be so incredibly practical.

Of course it might be a challenge for a PicoMEM-like card to support so many hardware IO addresses, multiple IRQ ports and DMA channels simultaneously on a single card with a single RP2040 or RP2350 controller.

digger wrote on 2026-02-07, 19:46:

I’ve had the idea of some kind of “smart” USB add-on card for vintage hardware that you could just plug multiple modern USB devi […]
Show full quote

I’ve had the idea of some kind of “smart” USB add-on card for vintage hardware that you could just plug multiple modern USB devices into, possibly through a USB hub, and then the card would present the connected USB devices to the host system as native legacy devices, negating the need to implement a USB stack for DOS and drivers and emulators and such.

So plug in a USB MIDI adapter, and the card would present it as an MPU-401 MIDI controller to the host systems, preferably with support for Intelligent Mode as well as UART mode. Plug in a USB sound device and the card would present it to the host system as a Sound Blaster compatible sound card. Plug in a USB game controller and the card would present it to the system as a 15-pin PC game port adapter. Plug in a USB mouse and the card would present it to the host PC either as a serial mouse or a bus mouse. Plug in a USB stick or external hard drive, and the system would detect it as an (XT-)IDE device. Wi-Fi dongles would show up as NE2000 network adapters. And so on, and so forth.

I guess the PicoMEM, being a software-defined expansion card, could be made to support all this. A lot of such projects exist for some of these things, but having a single card that could emulate all this, effectively forming a bridge between common USB peripherals and virtual legacy devices that are compatible with hardware that was natively supported back in the DOS era, that would be so incredibly practical.

Of course it might be a challenge for a PicoMEM-like card to support so many hardware IO addresses, multiple IRQ ports and DMA channels simultaneously on a single card with a single RP2040 or RP2350 controller.

PicoMEM :
Plug a USB Mouse, mouse working
Plus a Jack to the audio : PicoMEM is Tandy, CMS, Mindscape, Covox, Sound Blaster, Gravis
Plug a USB Drive : DOS can see the drive as a network drive, with no limitiation in disk/File size and file system
Plus a Joystick : Work as a PC analog joystick
Wifi is supported

Not sure what you want to do in a different way 😀