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Evertop: DIY retro PC revealed with solar charging and extreme battery life - and yes, it runs Doom

The Evertop PC is an IBM XT clone with up to 500 hours of battery life and solar charging. (Image source: ericjenott via Github)
The Evertop PC is an IBM XT clone with up to 500 hours of battery life and solar charging. (Image source: ericjenott via Github)
The Evertop PC is a new open-source retro PC inspired by the IBM XT. Powered by an ESP32 chip, the Evertop can almost entirely mimic the IBM XT's capabilities, including support for DOS-era software. Thanks to a massive battery, the Evertop system can run for hundreds of hours away from the wall, and even features solar charging support.

It is certain that there are plenty of folks on the planet who would gladly give up a chunk of raw performance and trade it for longer battery life. The Evertop PC, an open-source project however, takes battery life to a new extreme by packing 80's hardware and an ever-so efficient E-ink display.

As mentioned, the project is open-source and is freely accessible to anyone who deems it worthy of interest. Retro fans will be particularly pleased with this IBM XT clone, and according to its creator, @ericjenott, the system is capable of mimicking an actual IBM XT clone equipped with an 80186 processor and a whopping megabyte of memory thanks to the ESP32 controller. Unsurprisingly, choice of operating systems is limited to its era, and the list includes DOS, Minix, as well as a few others. Needless to say, the vast majority of DOS software from the 80s is supported, contingent upon their being IBM XT compatible.

At the top, a 5.83-inch display with a resolution of 648 x 480 is on offer. Being an E-Ink panel, the display requires absolutely no power when not refreshing. Storage requirements are taken of by a 256 GB SD card - perfectly fast enough considering the rest of the hardware. Thanks to its massive 10,000 mAh battery and low-power hardware, the system is capable of extremely impressive runtimes away from the wall - somewhere in the range of 200 to 500 hours depending on intensity. Moreover, solar charging support has also been included, allowing for 50 hours of use from a single hour of charge.

As far as connectivity is concerned, the Evertop boasts a decent array of ports including PS/2 for mouse and keyboard, an ethernet jack, USB for transferring files, serial (9-pin RS232 and TTL). Video output is made possible by CGA ( Color Graphics Adapter), MCGA, Hercules, as well as partial EGA and VGA support, likely with resolution and depth limitations. A cut-down variant with fewer ports, dubbed the Evertop Mini, is also in the works. All told, for retro computing enthusiasts, the Evertop sure does appear to be a fun project to contribute to.

The Evertop PC can run Doom, Wolfenstein 3D, Minesweeper, and more. (Image source: ericjenott via Github)
The Evertop PC can run Doom, Wolfenstein 3D, Minesweeper, and more. (Image source: ericjenott via Github)

Source(s)

GitHub, spotted by Liliputing

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> Expert Reviews and News on Laptops, Smartphones and Tech Innovations > News > News Archive > Newsarchive 2025 04 > Evertop: DIY retro PC revealed with solar charging and extreme battery life - and yes, it runs Doom
Sambit Saha, 2025-04-28 (Update: 2025-04-28)