ZX Spectrum Emulator on M5Stack Cardputer-Adv | External ILI9488 Display | Project Overview

Complete overview of ZX Spectrum 48K emulator for M5Stack Cardputer-Adv with external ILI9488 display support (480×320). I explain all the tricks and solutions we had to use for stable emulator performance on ESP32-S3. Technical Specifications: • ESP32-S3 @ 240 MHz • Z80 CPU emulation @ 3.5 MHz • Memory: 16 KB ROM + 48 KB RAM • Display: ILI9488 480×320, RGB565, 50 MHz SPI with DMA • Audio: 16 kHz I2S, double buffering, separate task on Core 1 • SD Card: 40 MHz High Speed, shared SPI bus with display • File Support: .SNA, .Z80, .TAP formats • Screenshots: BMP 256×192, 24-bit Display Connection External display connects via EXT 2.54-14P connector: SCK → PIN 7 (GPIO 40) MOSI → PIN 9 (GPIO 14) CS → PIN 13 (GPIO 5) DC → PIN 5 (GPIO 6) RST → PIN 1 (GPIO 3) SD card shares SPI bus with display: SD CS → GPIO 12 Special thanks • ESP32 Rainbow (original): https://github.com/atomic14/esp32-zxs... • ESP32 Rainbow Author: Alvaro Alea Fernandez (atomic14) • Z80 CPU core: Santiago Romero Iglesias • ZX Spectrum 48K ROM: Sinclair Research Ltd. • M5Stack for the excellent Cardputer https://m5stack.com/ • Emulator developer community Development: Andy + AI (ChatGPT, Claude) https://github.com/AndyAiCardputer/zx... If you enjoy these projects and want to support — https://buymeacoffee.com/andyaicardputer