The bitbox console is a small open hardware & open source game console. The intent behind it is to make a fun little, open console that anyone can actually build, hack or modify.

I will present the rationale behind it and the current status of the project, detail the hardware conception and particularly video signal generation from an ARM cortex-m4 microcontroller with no video subsystem. I will then proceed to show the different elements of the software stack : kernel, video engines, the boot loader and, finally, current programs and games, including a Gameboy emulator and a full motion video player.

Its current abilities are :

- Based on the STM32F4 ARM chip including 1MB Flash and 192kB SRAM
- 15 bit (32768 colors) color VGA with a resistive DAC.
- Software based signal generation, DMA based. Resolution : Variable, standard resolution of 640x480 @ 60 Hertz
- Stereo 12bit Audio DAC, variable sampling frequency
- microSD driven by 4wire SDIO (6 MB/s transfers tested)
- 1 user button / user LED
- 2 USB 2.0 host 
- 1 microUSB for power (may be used for loading firmware by soldering 2 solder jumpers)
- UEXT extension port 
- SWD port to debug programs on chip

A description of the console is available on its main blog