SimCoupe ESP32-P4-PC

Port of the SimCoupe SAM Coupé emulator to the Olimex ESP32-P4-PC board, running at full speed (50 fps / 100%) with audio and video.

Hardware Required

Component	Details
Board	Olimex ESP32-P4-PC (Rev B or later)
Display	Any HDMI monitor (connected via the board's HDMI port)
Keyboard	USB keyboard connected to the board's USB-A port
Storage	microSD card (≥1 GB, FAT32)

The board provides: ESP32-P4 dual-core RISC-V @ 400 MHz, 32 MB PSRAM, 16 MB flash, HDMI output via LT8912B bridge, audio via ES8311 codec, USB host via FE1.1s hub.

Software Required

• ESP-IDF v5.5 (with ESP32-P4 support)
• Python 3.8+
• CMake 3.16+

Install ESP-IDF following the official guide.

Building

# Source the ESP-IDF environment
source ~/esp/esp-idf/export.sh

# Clone the repo (with submodules)
git clone --recurse-submodules <repo-url>
cd SamCoupe

# Incremental build
./build_olimex_p4pc.sh

# Clean build (required after changing sdkconfig.defaults or adding components)
./build_olimex_p4pc.sh clean

# Build and flash
./build_olimex_p4pc.sh flash

# Build, flash, and open serial monitor
./build_olimex_p4pc.sh monitor

Or use idf.py directly:

idf.py build
idf.py -p /dev/cu.usbmodem* flash monitor

SD Card Setup

Format the microSD card as FAT32 and create the following structure:

/sdcard/
└── simcoupe/
    ├── samcoupe.rom      ← SAM Coupé ROM (required)
    ├── SimCoupe.cfg      ← optional config file
    └── disks/            ← disk images (.dsk, .mgt, .sad, .sdf)

ROM

The SAM Coupé ROM (samcoupe.rom, 32 KB) is copyright by Miles Gordon Technology and is not included. You can obtain it legally from:

• The SimCoupe releases page (included in the Windows installer)
• Dump it from real SAM Coupé hardware

Place samcoupe.rom at /sdcard/simcoupe/samcoupe.rom.

Disk Images

Copy .dsk, .mgt, .sad, or .sdf disk images to /sdcard/simcoupe/disks/. Use the in-emulator menu (F12) to insert them into the virtual drives.

Usage

Special Keys

Key	Action
F1	Insert disk into Drive 1
Shift+F1	Eject disk from Drive 1
Alt+F1	New blank disk in Drive 1
Ctrl+F1	Save disk in Drive 1
F2	Insert disk into Drive 2
Shift+F2	Eject disk from Drive 2
Alt+F2	New blank disk in Drive 2
Ctrl+F2	Save disk in Drive 2
F3	Tape browser
Shift+F3	Eject tape
F4	Import data
Shift+F4	Export data
Alt+F4	Exit emulator
F5	Toggle TV aspect ratio (5:4)
F6	Toggle graphics smoothing
Shift+F6	Toggle motion blur
F8	Toggle fullscreen
F9	Debugger
Shift+F9	Save screenshot (PNG)
F10	Options menu
F11	NMI (non-maskable interrupt)
F12	Reset SAM Coupé
Ctrl+F12	Exit emulator

Loading Software

1. Press F1 to open the disk browser for Drive 1
2. Navigate to your disk image and press Enter
3. The SAM Coupé will auto-boot from the disk (or type BOOT in BASIC)

Video Output

Parameter	Value
Resolution	1280×720 (720p)
Pixel clock	80 MHz (PLL_F240M/3, exact)
Refresh	~60 Hz (htotal=1650, vtotal=808)
Bridge	LT8912B MIPI DSI → HDMI
SAM area	512×192 scaled 2×H 3×V → 1024×576, centred
OSD area	512×384 scaled 2×H 1.5×V → 1024×576, centred

Audio Output

Parameter	Value
Codec	ES8311 via I2S
Sample rate	22050 Hz mono
SAA-1099 oversample	2×

Performance

Measured on Olimex ESP32-P4-PC (ESP32-P4 @ 400 MHz):

Metric	Value
Emulation speed	100% (50 fps stable)
Z80 execution	~12.5 ms/frame (Core 1)
Sound synthesis	~4 ms/frame (Core 0, overlapped)
Video blit	~2 ms/frame (dirty-line tracking)

Credits

• SimCoupe original emulator by Simon Owen
• SAASound SAA-1099 emulation by Dave Hooper
• LT8912B driver based on Linux kernel drivers/gpu/drm/bridge/lontium-lt8912b.c
• ESP32 port by Ramon Martinez (RQ-Radionics / Jorge Fuertes)

License

SimCoupe is licensed under the GNU GPL v2. See LICENSE for details. This ESP32 port follows the same license.