MNT August 2025 Update
Many nice things happened in August, like a mini campaign on Crowd Supply and a new version of the MNT Reform Next Motherboard.
MNT Mini Campaign on Crowd Supply
If you ever wanted to get your hands on an updated version of our most popular processor module to date—the RCORE RK3588 with 16/32 GB RAM—you now have the chance to buy it from Crowd Supply. This is especially great for our US-based customers considering the current tariffs situation (more on this later). The RCORE with RK3588 V2 is compatible with MNT Reform and MNT Pocket Reform. With Pocket Reform, it enables a new third M.2 slot for modern Wi-Fi 6E and BT 5.3.
You can still order the module from us directly, of course.
MNT Reform Next Developments
New Motherboard Version (D4)
New samples of the MNT Reform Next Motherboard (Development Version 4) have arrived and will be tested in September 2025. During testing of the high resolution modes of the camera module on D3, Lucie found that USB 3.0 SuperSpeed transmission barely worked, causing blank/corrupted images. They checked the layout again and discovered that the stackup for the 6-layer PCB was wrong: Almost all high speed differential pairs were on the inner layers, but the JLC default 6-layer stackup was not suitable for this, and for having a better time with 6-layer signal integrity it's often recommended to route these critical traces on the outer layers. This is why Lucie decided to redesign the layout from the ground up, placing the high speed traces (incl. USB 3.0) on the outer layers as well as improving the power layout and many other details.
We hope that USB 3.0 is now stable so that the motherboard can go into production. If you're curious about design and specifications, you can check out the schematic from our git repo.
Supporter Packs
We're excited to show you the t-shirt design for the MNT Reform Next supporter pack that was available during our Crowd Supply campaign! This version of the t-shirt features a 4-color screenprint that was designed by Lucie, based on many small MNT/Reform related design elements made over the years by Anri. Lucie also incorporated "pixel Tina" by Greta, the Fediverse asterism, and some details designed by themselves, including the Y2K MNT logo riff. The MNT Reform Next industrial design itself was made by Ana.
If you like the t-shirt but haven't purchased the supporter pack, no worries: We will make it available in our shop after we've shipped all of the orders to Crowd Supply. The batch is currently in production at the local printing service Cantana and is scheduled to arrive in the first two weeks of September 2025.
More MNT Developments
New version of FPGA (RKX7) Bringup
Lucie has relentlessly been working on the bringup of our fully open source FPGA processor module with Kintex-7 version 2. We first introduced it in 2022 but it was in need of an overhaul. On the one hand, we'd like to offer it for a lower price to make it more accessible for our customers. On the other hand, we want to make it usable for minimal computing like permacomputing, distraction-free writing/programming, etc with software defined processors running at 100-200MHz. Another goal is to provide the possibility for users to explore completely different architectures like RISC-V, OpenPower, or even native Uxn and configurations like manycore, and the ability to customize all aspects of the graphics pipeline. Making portation of FPGA based emulation projects like MiSTer possible is another purpose we had in mind. To move forward, we contracted William D. Jones to develop an integer pixel scaler for the LiteX FPGA system-on-chip construction kit to scale lower resolutions to our 1920x1080 displays and improve UI drawing speed/FPS.
We finished developing a clean mechanical mounting solution for the RGB to displayport converter that fits in Classic Reform (mPCIe slot) and Reform Next (tile).
On their way to version 2, Lucie has identified (and solved) a critical problem: An unstable VTTref voltage memory issue (memory test failed) that was a relic from 2022. This issue has been solved by placing an additional 10uF capacitor near the VTTref address bus termination resistors:
We now have a pretty stable Linux 6.1 system running on 32-bit VexRiscV RISC-V cores in the FPGA, and one can use several console based applications including networking tools/chat/browser/text editors. The next step would be to enable a stable and responsive desktop that can run without a GPU on 100-200MHz processors. So far, we've got X almost working, but it crashes due to memory corruption bugs after moving a window:
(Side note: Debugging an FPGA module is a good use case for MNT Desktop Reform!)
For the future, we're also looking into skipping X and exploring the usability of Wayland without a GPU (software rendering) on resource constrained systems, which we think is an important use case that Wayland should be able to cover.
We'd also like to encourage ports of less resource intensive operating systems like Plan 9/9front, Haiku OS, or NetBSD.
If you want regular updates on Lucie's progress (or even contribute) you can follow them on the Fediverse.
Order Fulfillment Table
In our July news update, we introduced the Order Fulfillment Table and it looks like a lot of you found this helpful. We have updated the table:
| Product | Order Placement Date (Range) | Estimated Shipment Date | Delays / Roadblocks | Notes (includes configuration X) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MNT Pocket Reform RK3588 Upgrade Bundle | ordered until 2025-06-11 | mid September 2025 | Includes Mediatek Wi-Fi card | |
| MNT Pocket Reform RK3588 Upgrade Bundle | ordered until 2025-07-20 | mid September 2025 | Includes Intel AX210 Wi-Fi/BT card | |
| MNT Pocket Reform RK3588 Upgrade Bundle | ordered from 2025-07-21 until now | 2 months after order date | new RCORE batch is ordered | Includes Intel AX210 Wi-Fi/BT card |
| MNT Pocket Reform (with A311D) | any | mid September 2025 | ||
| MNT Pocket Reform (with RK3588) | ordered until 2025-07-20 | mid September 2025 | ||
| MNT Pocket Reform (with RK3588) | ordered from 2025-07-21 | 2-3 months after order date | new RCORE batch is ordered | |
| MNT Reform RK3588 Upgrade Bundle | ordered until 2025-07-20 | mid September | slightly delayed because of various small parts and heatsink | |
| MNT Reform | any | mid September | ||
| ZZ9000 | ordered until 2025-08-24 | mid September 2025 | ||
| ZZ9000AX | any | mid September 2025 | ||
| HALO-90 Earrings (any color) | any | 2025-09-05 | ||
| Keyboard (purple case) | any | mid September 2025 | ||
| Keyboard (black case) | any | mid September 2025 |
Table last updated: 2025-08-25
You can also access this table on our FAQ page and in our support system under the category My Order. We aim to update it at least once a month. Note that we have no information about orders placed on Crowd Supply and Mouser. Please contact their customer support if you need information.
How We Deal with the US Tariffs Situation
Like many other small companies, we are also affected by the US tariffs situation and are actively trying to solve this for our customers as best as we can. Here is a breakdown of the issues we are facing:
Our US customers have to pay tariffs on orders from our shop as we are based in Germany. These tariffs will be charged via UPS shortly in advance to the delivery. This means: UPS will send an email and US customers need to pay the amount. Once paid, UPS delivers the package. If customers don't pay the package will be sent back to us—a huge waste of resources. So far, we thought that the agreement between the US and the EU would mean a fixed rate of 15%, but customers were now telling us they were asked to pay a much higher rate. We looked into this and found out that the US government charges approx. 25% (instead of the agreed 15%). In one case, the rate was at 30% even. There is no coherent explanation on how the tariffs are being calculated and why they are not at 15%. We have been inquiring at UPS but (so far) to no avail. UPS does have a global checkout option though, which would let us charge all of the costs beforehand. This has the advantage that customers can pay the total amount at checkout and won't be charged anything on top when the package arrives. Integrating the UPS Global Checkout option into our shop system is quite complex, so this will take us a few weeks. We will let you know when this is done in our news updates and on the Fediverse.
In the meantime: If you are based in the United States and would like to order from us, please be aware of the tariffs and only place an order if you are okay with paying these! Some of our products are also available on Crowd Supply/Mouser (who are based in the US), for example in-stock MNT Pocket Reform. These have the older i.MX8MPlus processor (4x 2GHz Cortex-A53 and 8GB RAM), but you'll also be able to grab the big RCORE with RK3588 upgrade in the US here.
Good to Know
In this section, we will cover fun things that we think you might appreciate, such as tips for using GNOME on MNT Pocket Reform or... installing Deus Ex (2000)!
GNOME Tips
We've been shipping our MNT Pocket Reform mini laptop with GNOME desktop for a while now and still discover features that we didn't know existed. We're grateful for the GNOME Extension Manager and all the available extensions. For example, this manager has a very handy extension that lets you hide the top bar, so you can reclaim some precious space on MNT Pocket Reform by only showing the bar when needed (cursor at the top). It's great for couch web browsing with Firefox that yields a fullscreen mode with tabs (the real Firefox fullscreen mode hides the tabs). The photos below illustrate this feature quite well:
For more tips, read the full thread on Mastodon.
How to Run Deus Ex (the Original) on Your MNT Pocket Reform
Recently, Lucie got Deus Ex (2000) running on Pocket Reform and it has been a very smooth experience. If you want to play this iconic game on your machine, here is a small guide on how to run it:
- Install hangover-wine. This is a version of wine that supports Windows games on ARM64 Linux devices.
- Install Deus Ex GOTY Edition from GOG on Pocket Reform.
- After setup, when choosing a renderer, select reveal all, and choose OpenGL.
- For the best OpenGL graphics, replace the game's renderer DLLs with these DLLs.
- Go to Display Options and select Windowed Mode. (the Fullscreen Mode is a bit buggy)
- Press SUPER+F to maximize the game window.
- Go to Settings and turn on 32 bit textures. (otherwise it will be too dark to navigate)
- Enjoy the game!
New Products
HALO-90: New Color 'Electric Green'
Our popular open source electronic earrings, in collaboration with Kolibri, got a new edition: Electric Green!
There are now 3 colors in total: Fiery Red, Ultramarine, and Electric Green. You can buy them here!
Community Updates
MNT Pocket Reform Customization
We love customizations of our devices and came across Matt Mills who has been documenting the process of his modifications of MNT Pocket Reform on his Mastodon account.
Absolutely stunning!
If you also make customizations that you want us to know about, head over to the MNT Community Forum and post them! You can also tag us on the Fediverse to make sure we see your mods.
That's it for now! Have a great September and read our next update in 4 weeks. And in the meantime, see you on the Fediverse!