PiStudio: a Raspberry Pi-powered IDE for the Amstrad CPC

3/29/2026

I've been working on a personal project for some time now called PiStudio.
It's a new development environment that runs on a Raspberry Pi and connects to an Amstrad CPC through the CPC-CPLINK from Revaldinho.

PiStudio transforms the CPC into a development workstation where you can code, compile, debug, manage files, and explore/maintain Git repositories, all directly from the CPC's keyboard and screen (in a full-overscan 92x32 character resolution). It's built around a suite of integrated tools that work seamlessly together, featuring a shared clipboard, a unified interface and the ability to open documents across applications. It's designed to run entirely offline, with certain optional features leveraging network connectivity.

At its core, the idea is simple: the Pi quietly handles all the heavy work, while the CPC remains a responsive front-end. The experience feels natural and authentic, you are working on your CPC, just with capabilities that would have felt like science fiction back in 1985!

Text Editor

The editor is the heart of PiStudio. It's a full-featured code editor tailored for development, but equally capable for any text file.

Key features:

Multiple open documents with tab-like navigation
Split-view editing (horizontal or vertical) to compare or edit two files side by side
Find & Replace in current file or across the entire project
Bookmarks for quick navigation between favorite files
Fuzzy file finder for instant file lookup by name
Compile the active file or a designated main file with a single shortcut. Its binary can be streamed to the CPC's memory and executed.
The supported development languages/toolkits are Locomotive BASIC, RASM and SDCC C Compiler
Code Inspector: access your variables/functions when editing the source files (ASM, BASIC and C are supported)
Unlimited UNDO/REDO Clipboard history
Calculator dialog with hex/decimal conversion
ASCII/character table (CPC glyphs)
Multi-language Spell checking
AI-powered Translation tool
Auto-formatting for ASM files
Word wrap, configurable tab width
Printer support
Full session persistence: opened files, cursor positions, split state etc. are all restored on next launch

Debugger

The debugger provides real-time inspection and stepping of programs running on the actual CPC hardware. When your program hits a breakpoint (BRK instruction), the CPC client captures the full Z80 state (with partial Gate Array support for now) and sends it to PiStudio.

Key features:

Emulated Z80
Full Z80 register view including all alternate registers
Gate Array state detection (ROM selection, RAM banking) so you always know what's paged in at any address
Disassembly panel with navigation by PC or manual address
Memory dump panel (full 64 KB address space)
Step into, step over, step return, continue, run to cursor
RASM / SDCC symbol file integration (labels are resolved and displayed in the disassembly and can be searched by name)
Quick access to the original ASM or C source code corresponding to the current disassembly location
NOPs counter for cycle-accurate timing/profiling
Memory visualizer
Text and hex search across memory
Import/export binary data to and from files
Export disassembly listings

Hex Editor

A dedicated binary editor for working with raw data files, disk images or memory dumps.

Key features:

Hex + ASCII side-by-side display
Insert and overwrite modes
Selection with live length and checksum display
Cut, copy, paste
Import/export binary blocks
Text and hex search with replace
Direct offset navigation
Split-view support
Undo/redo
Printer support

File Manager

A dual-pane file browser that unifies access to the Pi's file store, the CPC's physical disc drives and remote PiStudio instances on the network.

Supported drives:

PI: the PiStudio file store on the Pi
A: and B: the CPC's physical disc drives
hostname: remote PiStudio instances discovered on the LAN

Key features:

Dual-pane layout for easy copy/move between locations
Full UniDOS support for extended file system operations (long filenames, subdirectories, modern storage devices)
Create folders, rename, copy, move, delete
Select files by keyword pattern
Toggle hidden files, configurable columns (size, date, time), sort by name/size/date
Bookmarks for frequently accessed directories
Fuzzy file finder
Open files directly in the Text Editor or Hex Editor
Create DSK disc images (with the ability to navigate into them without opening)
Create ZIP archives (with the ability to navigate into them without opening)
Inspect AMSDOS headers
Shell support

Source Control

A full Git front-end designed for keyboard-driven workflows.

Key features:

Initialize, open, clone repositories
Open recent repositories
View working tree changes and full commit history
Side-by-side diff viewer
Line-by-line diff viewer with word wrap
Stage/unstage individual files or all changes
Discard changes
Commit with message
Revert commits
Sync/pull to latest
Reset to a specific revision
Push to remote

Chatbot / Code Assistant

An AI-powered assistant built into PiStudio, supporting both OpenAI (ChatGPT) and Anthropic (Claude) as providers.

Key features:

Start new conversations or resume previous ones
Conversation history with save/load
Provider configuration (API keys, model selection)
Split-view layout
Useful for quick code analysis, algorithm improvements or general programming help --

without ever leaving the IDE. It can also auto-comment your code, suggest label renaming,
translate entire documents, generate new files with AI-generated content, etc.

The Chatbot is also accessible as a tool dialog from within the Text Editor.

Developer Guide

A comprehensive, fully offline reference encyclopedia covering all things Amstrad CPC. Articles are linked together through hyperlinks. This is a massive embedded knowledge base organized into searchable, reviewed articles (about 3MB of uncompressed text to this day).

Content categories include:

Getting Started: choose your path: BASIC, Z80 assembly, or C
History & Culture: CPC timeline, notable software, community, comparisons with 8-bit & 16-bit computers and more
Amstrad CPC Manual: the full user manual, reformatted for quick reference
Software Manuals: RASM, Maxam, DAMS, Orgams, Protext, Utopia, Starkos, Soundtrakker, OCP, Discology, and more
Locomotive BASIC: complete tutorial, keyword reference, token table, error messages, optimization tips
C Programming: SDCC for the CPC: syntax, data structures, embedded constraints, optimization, PiStudio integration
Hardware: Z80 CPU, CRTC, Gate Array, PPI, AY-3-8912, FDC, ASIC, peripherals, Multiface 2, M4 Board, UniDOS, CPC-CPLink
Firmware & Memory Map: firmware vectors, memory layout, address space by model
Z80 Assembly Programming: tutorial (beginner to expert), addressing modes, interrupts, optimization, NOPs timing
Algorithms & Data Structures: sorting, searching, compression, fixed-point math, trigonometry
Files & Storage: file types, disc formats, DSK/SNA/CDT/CPR image formats, fast loaders
Graphics Programming: 2D/3D graphics, screen effects, rotation, projection
Sound Programming: AY chip programming, music players, digidrums, sound effects, tracker integration
Game Development: sprite engines, tile maps, physics, AI, entity systems
Demomaking Techniques: rasters, ruptures, overscan, plasma, starfield, fire, mode mixing
Tips & Tricks: speed optimization, debugging, compatibility, useful PEEKs/POKEs
Source Code Collections: Z80 assembly source code from community members
Full-text search (Ctrl+F) works across all content

Settings

And finally, a System-wide configuration for PiStudio.

Configurable options:

WiFi setup
Printer configuration (LAN)
API keys for the Chatbot
Git user and credential configuration
Color theme customization
Display preferences

Few words about the CPC Client

The client side runs a compact Z80 assembly program (available as ROM or disc formats) that:

Switches the CPC to Mode 2 overscan for a full-screen IDE display
Reads the CPC keyboard matrix and sends key events to the Pi
Hardware keyboard clash are automatically detected and resolved
Receives screen updates as character diffs (only changed cells are transmitted, for speed)
Handles breakpoint traps: when a running program hits a BRK instruction, the client captures all the Z80 registers, the Gate Array state, and a full 64 KB RAM dump, then hands control back to PiStudio’s debugger
Manages file I/O through AMSDOS firmware calls for reading/writing to CPC disc drives
Supports UniDOS RSX commands for modern storage devices
Includes robust timeout handling and automatic reconnection if the link with the CPC-CPLINK gets interrupted
Debugging feature not available when running from disc

Availability

This post is just an announcement. While PiStudio is already quite solid in its current state, I want to complete a real personal project with it first, giving myself the necessary time to refine and improve the overall experience.

To keep the distribution simple, PiStudio will be released as a disk image to be written to a Raspberry Pi SD card.

Closing words

I want to thank Rabs who initially pointed me to CPC-CPLink project and TotO, who as usual has been a continuous source of inspiration and advice while designing PiStudio.

Stay tuned!

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