Hello!

It’s been a while since I announced this newsletter, and, as promised, the volume of mails is quite low (zero until now, to be exact)!

A lot of stuff has happened in the Ashet project in 2025 and 2026 since the website was launched in August 2025:

• The computer and I have visited the Evoke Demo Party, the Zigtoberfest as well as the Zig Day Nurnberg, spreading the word and showcasing the system to the world.
• I’ve applied for the NGI Zero Commons Fund at end of November, and yesterday I’ve received the confirmation for the second selection round!
• The prototype was completely rebuilt and is networking capable.
• The documentation for the OS is now available at os.ashet.computer. This includes a live demo where you can try out the OS. It’s still a bit flaky, mostly due to slight incompatibilities with v86.js keyboard controller emulation.
• The Southbridge design based on the Propeller 2 is now fully validated and works great.
• I’ve made a graphical design study of how I want the OS to look in the future. This design is already partially realized in the widget server implementation.
• The schematics for the Backplane are now mostly complete. This also revealed that through BOM optimizations I’ve halved my original estimation of 80 € material for the backplane to only around 40 €.
  If you’re curious, you can check out the schematics by installing KiCAD and cloning the computer repository.
• The website now hosts a devlog which I’ve filled with all relevant or interesting posts I’ve shared in the Discord channel #showcase.
  The devlog is also available as a RSS feed!

The project is really developing well and I hope I can build at least the Backplane and the Mainboard this year.

I’m also so happy and grateful that I’ve reached the second stage of the NGI Zero Commons Fund! If I get accepted, it means I can put way more time into the project in 2027.

My next steps are finishing the Backplane schematic, then doing the layout of the PCB and building the first version of it. I’m super excited and nervous as this is a huge step for the project and it’s the major design part of the electrical design.

The Mainboard itself is way simpler design-wise and will mostly be a copy-paste of the Raspberry Pi Pico 2 design fused with the designs of the Olimex MOD-ENC624J600 and the reference design of the USB hub. This means a lot of the hard work is already done and we can benefit from other projects.

If you want to get more frequent updates to the project, I recommend that you either join the Discord server or follow the devlog! I’ll publish the same “achievement posts” in both channels, but the Discord server will also contain very fine-granular development updates, musings or rants.

I understand that Discord isn’t exactly the best option for this, but my time is limited to maintain another channel for the project as well. This is why I’ve set up the devlog, to give the “outside world” more insight into project updates.

We’re looking into a bright future for Ashet Technologies!

Best wishes
- Felix “xq” Queißner

P.S.
If you’re interested in participating or funding the project, feel free to contact me at contact@ashet.computer!