[HN Gopher] The Tulip Creative Computer
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The Tulip Creative Computer
Author : apitman
Score : 164 points
Date : 2026-01-13 17:10 UTC (5 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (github.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
| wendgeabos wrote:
| Old man asks: Does this support what the kids call "livecoding"?
| apitman wrote:
| I didn't know about livecoding; thanks for that!
|
| It's seems like the Tulip could definitely be used for
| something like that, though you might have to write quite a bit
| of your own framework code in python.
| WillAdams wrote:
| Funny how this has co-opted the Runtime Revolution folks re-
| naming their Hypercard clone as:
|
| https://livecode.com/
| Gys wrote:
| Funny! In the '80s Tulip Computers NV[1] was a Dutch computer
| manufacturer that manufactured PC clones.
|
| [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulip_Computers
| amelius wrote:
| Maybe the trademark is still owned by someone (?)
| sethhochberg wrote:
| The thing about trademarks is that, if you want to prevent
| other people from using them, you generally have to still be
| using it yourself and be able/willing to justify to a court
| that you're still using it. (At least in most legal systems
| that I'm familiar with)
|
| Since the original company both changed names and was
| subsequently liquidated in bankruptcy nearly 20 years ago...
| that seems unlikely. There's only so many names out there,
| and occasionally they get fairly recycled.
| lysace wrote:
| Cute of you to think that the american developers behind this
| would care about that.
|
| https://github.com/shorepine/tulipcc/graphs/contributors
| Smalltalker-80 wrote:
| Was thinking that too.. :)
| hagbard_c wrote:
| Yes, I got a tour of their factory back in the day when I was
| editor for a number of IT-related magazines. Close to
| everything was made there in that factory from the metal
| housing for the machines to the circuit boards - photoresist,
| exposure, etching, cleaning, printing, conformal coating,
| through the pick-and-place machine, through the wave solder
| bath, testing and mounting in the chassis. In the Netherlands,
| in a relatively modest factory hall. If it could work then -
| and it did, for a while - it should be possible to do that now
| without the compulsive urge to outsource everything.
| Findecanor wrote:
| I expected this thread to be about a vintage computer from them
| when I clicked.
|
| I'm pretty sure I had seen some promotional material of theirs
| the last time I was in NL, so I didn't know they had gone out
| of business in 2008/2009 already.
| runningmike wrote:
| It was a great innovative company in the Netherlands. They
| designed and manufactured everything themselves. Hardware
| boards and software. See
| https://www.homecomputermuseum.nl/collectie/tulip/?srsltid=A...
| sighansen wrote:
| Looks interesting. I'm interested in the T-Deck Tulip CC and
| would love to use it for coding whilst im traveling. Any
| experience with using such a device for light programming?
| apitman wrote:
| If you're staying in python or another dynamic language it
| could probably work. Unfortunately I don't think there are a
| lot of native compilers that run on esp32s, though there are
| some[0]
|
| [0]: https://github.com/valdanylchuk/xcc700
| apitman wrote:
| What I love about this is the reduction in complexity compared to
| how something like this would typically be built today.
|
| If I were to build a synth a year ago I probably would have used
| Rust compiled to WASM and running in the browser. This thing has
| a lot of the same functionality, but you have about -30 million
| lines of code for the OS, -30MLOC for the browser, and another
| -30MLOC for Rust/LLVM.
|
| And that doesn't even get in to the cost of materials or power
| savings.
|
| Obviously it's not apples to apples but it really makes me wonder
| how much of that stack we need for most programs.
| parentheses wrote:
| It's a trade off as always. I agree though.
|
| I wonder the same thing a lot. I also wonder how AI will fit
| into this problem.
| apitman wrote:
| I agree AI is interesting here. It raises the level of
| abstraction in a similar way to the OS/Browser/language, but
| it does so by depending on a lot of data, as opposed to
| depending on a lot of code.
|
| The cost of abstraction is always dependencies.
| diydsp wrote:
| I've been using it for a few months. Great project. I especially
| love adding i2c peripherals from M5. E.g. a bank of 8 rotary
| encoders.
|
| Also love how absolutely minimal it is in size and if you didnt
| notice, the screen is a touchscreen. And they have a basic set of
| ui widgets.
|
| Also interesting, the gfx lets you overlap sprites, bitmap, and
| text mode. You can tell the designers have lot of XP on 8-bit
| systems. And the bitmap is a little larger than the screen so you
| can do some superbitmap stuff. It's bot terribly larger, just a
| bit.
|
| I havent been using it as much for its synth capabilites,
| ironically, but for making sequencers for external instruments. I
| believe it also has audio in...
|
| Also the discord is helpful. 10/10
| pjmlp wrote:
| Given the name I thought it was someone reviving a PC brand.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulip_Computers
| jama211 wrote:
| Super cool!
| systemerror wrote:
| Also interested if this supports strudel REPL or tidalcycles.
| This would be a really awesome device to use for livecoding sets
| if it does.
| exitb wrote:
| That's a tall order for a 240 MHz CPU.
| wendgeabos wrote:
| Oh interesting. Thanks!
| Rohansi wrote:
| Why? That's a decent amount of power for running one thing.
| It's also dual core! You can emulate early consoles on this
| microcontroller. Someone made a 3D game for the similar (but
| less performant) RP2040 running at 250 MHz ->
| https://github.com/bernhardstrobl/Pico3D
| alexisread wrote:
| I get the impression that the Atari AMY chip was an inspiration?
| Wonderful to see how the Alles speakers are implemented!
| xattt wrote:
| > You can use Tulip to make music, code, art, games, or just
| write.
|
| Am I wrong to think statements like these are just aspirational
| warm-and-fuzzies about the product without any real substance?
|
| You could do all those things on anything, but they are typically
| incongruent with one another. If you are a beginner or a pro,
| you're going to be better off doing it on a "more-standard"
| device.
| eykanal wrote:
| Agree with the above. As someone who has never heard of this
| before, the description of "a portable programmable device for
| music, graphics, code and writing" reads to me as "a computer".
| I'm kind of unsure why I would want to use this instead of the
| computer I'm typing on right now.
|
| This seems to be targeting the market of users with the
| following intersecting interests: * DIY hardware enthusiast *
| musician * python developer * maybe also wants graphics...?
| Seems a small segment to me, but I assume I'm missing something
| here.
| wibbily wrote:
| An immediate benefit I see is that they're cheap enough to
| use once - you could make/find/buy a software instrument that
| you like, then put it in your gear bag and never reflash it.
| Now it's just like any other synth. Then you can get a second
| Tulip and do the same thing later if you like. You could do
| this with laptops of course but it starts to get expensive.
|
| The Pocket Operators have something similar (the KO at least,
| maybe the others). If you've written samples into them you
| want to preserve for playing live, you can snap a tab off and
| then they're read-only - no surprises on gig night.
| bmitc wrote:
| Do you have a more substantive critique?
|
| I'm particularly sensitive to shallow critiques of new ways of
| computing, particularly those that encourage and enable people
| to be creative. Whether a project is successful or not, it's
| nice to see something that isn't a "bootup your general purpose
| comouter and then immediately open a browser" style of
| computing.
|
| Attempting to get people to interact with the real world and
| also be creative should be commended.
| apitman wrote:
| Here's a few I care about:
|
| * Boots almost instantly into a usable system
|
| * I can read and understand every line of code that is running
|
| * I can understand all of the hardware it's running on
|
| We've gotten so used to computers not working. Weird stuff
| breaks all the time and even experts can only guess why beyond
| turning it off and on again, which takes minutes for most
| devices.
|
| I dream of a world where we trust computers to work and be
| fast. It's completely possible, but step one is reducing
| complexity by several orders of magnitude.
| denisnazarov wrote:
| Go brian!
| arjie wrote:
| This kind of limited device is something I've been thinking about
| with respect to what interactions I want my children to have with
| computers. I remember when I was 9 years old and we got these
| computers at the lab at school and we wrote some LOGO and BASIC
| and it was a mind-blowing experience. We were drawing SQUARES!
| And we were making TRIANGLES of ASTERISKS! Hahaha, what a
| glorious thing that felt like.
|
| I got so much joy from computers and I'd like my kids to have
| that kind of experience too without accidentally detouring into
| social media (which has my mind in a vice grip).
|
| Still a couple of years away, but I think I'd like to evaluate
| this kind of device then and see if it's the right model to use.
| tyre wrote:
| The Basic variant on a TI-84 was magic. One science teacher at
| my high school allowed us to use any program as long as we
| wrote it ourselves. I remember making programs with nested
| menus for all types of physics algorithms. Through debugging, I
| ended up memorizing them anyway, but it was more fun (and
| error-free) to use the program itself.
| wibbily wrote:
| I think I'm in love.
|
| That it's built off Micropython is a huge deal. I've started
| using it by default for my hardware projects and it makes
| everything easier - writing drivers, playing with user
| interfaces, etc. Loads of regular Python libraries work and I can
| even grab them over the Internet. Like how I imagine it was
| running Forth or smth on embedded kits back in the day (ah maybe
| not the networking bit)
| akhil08agrawal wrote:
| Seems a little too technical for me but I am really curious.
| Seems pretty interesting. My brother is into music and is looking
| forward to get started with music production as well. And he
| himself is a developer. He might like this. Let's see.
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