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Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : Gami1000 -- a native FORTH OS for ESP32-P4

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bfwolf
Senior Member

Joined: 03/01/2025
Location: Germany
Posts: 250
Posted: 10:57pm 09 Jul 2026
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Ever since Chuck Moore invented it, Forth has been renowned for its outstanding code density and speed!

He originally used the language to implement real-time control for a radio telescope running on a minicomputer.

Later, he developed a microprocessor (the NC4000) that used Forth as its machine language. It achieved speeds that were breathtaking for the time by using three parallel address and data buses to access code memory, data memory, and the stack simultaneously. Shortly thereafter, Harris brought it to market as the RTX2000 for commercial applications. I once saw a demonstration — perhaps at an Embedded Systems trade show, where an RTX2000 controlled an electric motor to balance a pendulum upright; even if you gave it a shove, the system would automatically correct itself and return to the vertical position!

Forth also ran exceptionally well on the 6502 — almost as if the 6502 had been designed specifically for the language — which is why it was so popular on the C64 as well.

I also had a rather curious experience: shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall (1989), the Embedded Systems trade show (now held in Nuremberg) took place in Sindelfingen, near Stuttgart. A programming competition was held there involving a control engineering task, with several teams participating. The winning team was the one that solved the task the fastest. All the teams from the West tackled the problem using PCs equipped with 80286 or 80386 processors, running Turbo C under MS-DOS. However, there was also a team from the GDR (who had driven there in their little two-stroke Trabant) that had brought along a Z80 computer made by VEB Robotron.  And they programmed in Forth! They ended up winning the competition with a significant lead in time!  

For many, the language feels quite unfamiliar due to RPN — though fans of HP calculators take to it very easily.

In case anyone is interested: there are two wonderful books by Leo Brodie, who worked at Chuck Moore's company back in the day.
The books are highly entertaining, featuring comic-style illustrations, and they also provide valuable computer knowledge applicable to other programming languages.

"Starting FORTH"
https://www.forth.com/starting-forth/
https://www.forth.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Starting-FORTH.pdf

"Thinking Forth by Leo Brodie"
"A Language and Philosophy for Solving Problems"
https://www.forth.com/forth-books/
https://www.forth.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/thinking-forth-color.pdf
Edited 2026-07-10 09:04 by bfwolf
 
amiga
Regular Member

Joined: 08/05/2025
Location: Belgium
Posts: 50
Posted: 09:28am 10 Jul 2026
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  cicciocb said  
  amiga said  

Annexe RDS , doesn't support the wifi part(the board use esp32-C6 as wifi co-processor)

But it support esp32-p4 and hope the screen also

@+
Amiga


Annex RDS fully supports the esp32-p4 including the WiFi / BLE via the ESP32-C6.
The DSI screens are also supported including touch and LVGL.

little LVGL demo


Thanks for that clarification; the last time I checked the RDS forum regarding the ESP32-P4, Wi-Fi support for the ESP32-C6 hadn't been implemented yet.

It's great to see this new integration.

We now have two 'BASIC' interpreter branches: one specialized for the RP23040/23050 and the other for the ESP32.

Hobbyists no longer have any excuse not to dive into some great projects.

Thanks to both communities for their involvement in these collaborative projects.

@+
Amiga ( Today Belgium/Spain .. 2 RED .. this night  .. HOT HOT HOT .. )
 
amiga
Regular Member

Joined: 08/05/2025
Location: Belgium
Posts: 50
Posted: 09:42am 10 Jul 2026
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  GerryL said  Amiga, very impressive IDE, I can see there is a whole mountain of work hiding behind your GUI.
I used Forth on and off for over 20 years in the data acquisition area and have always had a soft spot for it. I had a work colleague who was a bit of an expert at it and he referred to it as his “Gentlemen’s Assembler” as he could do anything assembly could do without getting his hands dirty in registers or re-inventing wheels.  
I was looking to build my 3rd generation weather station when I stumbled across pFORTH (portable FORTH) and put it on a STM32H7 and added graphics and HW interface but realised I needed an IDE and a similar pFORTH app with graphics and comms port in Windows to write and test the code as its easy to make stack errors if you’re a novice like me.  So that distracted me from the STM32H7 project but after starting the IDE I realised it would be great for developing CSub’s so another distraction. Then I realised my IDE needed to support MMBasic with built in help so another fork.  In the meantime I’m trying to resurrect a 1939 Westinghouse radio so what I have is a whole bunch of unfinished projects, no closer to building my 3rd generation weather station, and being 75 years old fast running out of time!
Clearly your more disciplined than me.

Gerry


Hi Gerry ,

i'm near 70 years old ... and life is so wonderfull .. with or without silicium ..
My partner always tells me: "It’s not the destination that matters, but the journey and the person you become along the way."

I don't know if that's flattering for me...  

Leonardo da Vinci never finished his projects; it was his collaborators who brought them to completion.
What matters is the thrill of imagining and starting the work , even if the harsh reality sometimes brings us back down to earth , because the satisfaction of seeing the project come to life is priceless.

Have nice day ,

@+
Amiga
 
amiga
Regular Member

Joined: 08/05/2025
Location: Belgium
Posts: 50
Posted: 12:37pm 10 Jul 2026
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  bfwolf said  Ever since Chuck Moore invented it, Forth has been renowned for its outstanding code density and speed!

He originally used the language to implement real-time control for a radio telescope running on a minicomputer.

Later, he developed a microprocessor (the NC4000) that used Forth as its machine language. It achieved speeds that were breathtaking for the time by using three parallel address and data buses to access code memory, data memory, and the stack simultaneously. Shortly thereafter, Harris brought it to market as the RTX2000 for commercial applications. I once saw a demonstration — perhaps at an Embedded Systems trade show, where an RTX2000 controlled an electric motor to balance a pendulum upright; even if you gave it a shove, the system would automatically correct itself and return to the vertical position!

Forth also ran exceptionally well on the 6502 — almost as if the 6502 had been designed specifically for the language — which is why it was so popular on the C64 as well.

I also had a rather curious experience: shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall (1989), the Embedded Systems trade show (now held in Nuremberg) took place in Sindelfingen, near Stuttgart. A programming competition was held there involving a control engineering task, with several teams participating. The winning team was the one that solved the task the fastest. All the teams from the West tackled the problem using PCs equipped with 80286 or 80386 processors, running Turbo C under MS-DOS. However, there was also a team from the GDR (who had driven there in their little two-stroke Trabant) that had brought along a Z80 computer made by VEB Robotron.  And they programmed in Forth! They ended up winning the competition with a significant lead in time!  

For many, the language feels quite unfamiliar due to RPN — though fans of HP calculators take to it very easily.

In case anyone is interested: there are two wonderful books by Leo Brodie, who worked at Chuck Moore's company back in the day.
The books are highly entertaining, featuring comic-style illustrations, and they also provide valuable computer knowledge applicable to other programming languages.

"Starting FORTH"
https://www.forth.com/starting-forth/
https://www.forth.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Starting-FORTH.pdf

"Thinking Forth by Leo Brodie"
"A Language and Philosophy for Solving Problems"
https://www.forth.com/forth-books/
https://www.forth.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/thinking-forth-color.pdf


Hi bfwolf ,

thanks sharing this memory , when doing more with less .
It's eco-programming ahead from their time

i have this 2 books , i love the way are done with comics,algo,etc ..
Learning must be a pleasure ...

@+
Amiga
 
zeitfest
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Joined: 31/07/2019
Location: Australia
Posts: 686
Posted: 01:28pm 10 Jul 2026
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This is an interesting ESP32-P4 screenboard that might run things
 
PhenixRising
Guru

Joined: 07/11/2023
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 1986
Posted: 01:48pm 10 Jul 2026
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  Quote  Hobbyists no longer have any excuse not to dive into some great projects.


"Hobbyist"

In fact. Cicciocb always neglects to state that Annex32 is the only MCU development tool in 2026 with this license restriction.

I had purchased the hardware before I came across the fine print.  
Edited 2026-07-10 23:52 by PhenixRising
 
robert.rozee
Guru

Joined: 31/12/2012
Location: New Zealand
Posts: 2541
Posted: 02:15pm 10 Jul 2026
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  amiga said  

my current board ::
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005010425057615.html

without screen ..
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005009557354669.html


unfortunately the regular prices for these two items are:
NZ$129.44 (equal to approximately €65.35) for the one with a screen
and
NZ$115.70 (equal to approximately €58.41) for the one without screen.

i believe the prices you have seen are for customers who have never purchased from aliexpress before. now i have been down this rabbit hole before, and trust me in saying it is extremely difficult to convince aliexpress that you are a new user when you have already purchased from them in the past. they keep on record the name, credit card number, paypal account name, postal address, and phone number for every purchase ever made from them. if any of these match to an attempted purchase, then at the final stages of checkout the 'regular' price will be quietly substituted for the 'welcome deal' price. if you are unlucky you won't notice this!

sorry to be the bearer of bad news  


cheers,
rob   :-)
Edited 2026-07-11 00:28 by robert.rozee
 
vegipete

Guru

Joined: 29/01/2013
Location: Canada
Posts: 1182
Posted: 04:08pm 10 Jul 2026
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  robert.rozee said  unfortunately the regular prices for these two items are:
NZ$129.44 (equal to approximately €65.35) for the one with a screen

Strange. It goes into my cart/check-out at CAD49.68, plus another $6 for taxes. And that's logged in.

Do I need another dev board?
Visit Vegipete's *Mite Library for cool programs.
 
robert.rozee
Guru

Joined: 31/12/2012
Location: New Zealand
Posts: 2541
Posted: 04:51pm 10 Jul 2026
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  vegipete said  
  robert.rozee said  unfortunately the regular prices for these two items are:
NZ$129.44 (equal to approximately €65.35) for the one with a screen

Strange. It goes into my cart/check-out at CAD49.68, plus another $6 for taxes. And that's logged in.

Do I need another dev board?


here in new zealand, not logged in, i see:
NZ$39.67
New shoppers save NZ$89.77
NZ$129.44

(with the last line being the 'regular' price)


cheers,
rob   :-)
 
JohnS
Guru

Joined: 18/11/2011
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 4343
Posted: 05:50pm 10 Jul 2026
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rob,

I've had that happen, too (for different items).

Fortunately I noticed and aborted the purchase.

John
 
amiga
Regular Member

Joined: 08/05/2025
Location: Belgium
Posts: 50
Posted: 07:19pm 10 Jul 2026
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  robert.rozee said  
  amiga said  

my current board ::
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005010425057615.html

without screen ..
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005009557354669.html


unfortunately the regular prices for these two items are:
NZ$129.44 (equal to approximately €65.35) for the one with a screen
and
NZ$115.70 (equal to approximately €58.41) for the one without screen.

i believe the prices you have seen are for customers who have never purchased from aliexpress before. now i have been down this rabbit hole before, and trust me in saying it is extremely difficult to convince aliexpress that you are a new user when you have already purchased from them in the past. they keep on record the name, credit card number, paypal account name, postal address, and phone number for every purchase ever made from them. if any of these match to an attempted purchase, then at the final stages of checkout the 'regular' price will be quietly substituted for the 'welcome deal' price. if you are unlucky you won't notice this!

sorry to be the bearer of bad news  


cheers,
rob   :-)


very expensive !! my order was  : 28.36 €

check other supplier .. sometime price are very crazy .
i saw one with 50€ and 350€ for posting !!!! suppose a joke by a kid !!

@+
Amiga
 
PeteCotton

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Joined: 13/08/2020
Location: Canada
Posts: 645
Posted: 11:06pm 10 Jul 2026
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  Martin H. said  
  PeteCotton said  

I particularly like the Boing Ball demo - nice touch.

Hihi, Those were my first steps in 6809 assembly back in 1986


Wow! As a Dragon 32 owner, I can appreciate how tricky that would have been to do.
 
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