Pico-2 VT-100 Terminal

Overview

The Pico-2 VT-100 Terminal is a professional-grade VT-100 compatible terminal emulator built on the Raspberry Pi Pico 2 (RP2350). It delivers workstation-class display quality at embedded system cost — supporting resolutions from 640×480 up to 1280×1024 (SXGA) on a standard 15-pin VGA monitor, with 512 colours via a 9-bit R3G3B3 resistor DAC.

The firmware exploits the full RP2350 hardware: all 12 PIO state machines across three PIO blocks generate pixel and sync signals with hardware-clock precision; 8 DMA channels feed the display pipeline with zero CPU overhead during rendering; both Cortex-M33 cores run at 250 MHz. The result is smooth, flicker-free VGA output with no display dropouts even at maximum text capacity (10,240 characters at 1280×1024 with 8×16 font).

Up to 16 independent windows can be open simultaneously, each with its own scroll region, text wrap mode, and cursor position. The terminal accepts standard VT-100 escape codes over USB-CDC or hardware UART, making it a drop-in display for any serial host: industrial PLCs, legacy instruments, CNC controllers, or custom embedded systems.

Key Features

• Four resolution modes: 1280×1024, 1024×768, 800×600, 640×480 — selectable at runtime
• 512 colours — 9-bit R3G3B3 resistor DAC, 75Ω VGA standard
• Up to 16 simultaneous independent windows
• Full VT-100 escape code set — ANSI colour, cursor control, erase functions
• PIO-driven pixel/sync generation — zero CPU overhead during display
• 8-channel DMA pipeline — sustained frame rate at all resolutions
• USB-CDC and hardware UART input — no drivers required on host
• Stable 250 MHz operation with thermal monitoring and automatic fallback

Specifications