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He Chunhui's Tiny386 Turns an ESP32-S3 into a Fully-Functional 386-Powered PC

95 points by HardwareLust 11mo ago

accrual 11mo ago
Super cool work! Here's the emulator source: https://github.com/hchunhui/tiny386 https://github.com/hchunhui/tiny386 I wonder what the "effective" clock of the emulated CPU is, maybe we could run Speedsys or Landmark under DOS on it to see how it fares against a real 386. I happen to have a top-end 386 at 40MHz, 16MB FPM, and S3 801 VGA, but it's not quite fast enough to "enjoy" Win95 for me. :)
- stavros 11mo ago
  From the looks of the video, neither is this project, which might mean that performance is comparable to the real 386!
gerdesj 11mo ago
Blast! 80386 was removed from Linux only a few years ago. Ironically enough it was the first supported platform because Linus T had one.
- mjg59 11mo ago
  The article says it supports enough 486 and Pentium instructions to boot modern Linux
  - deleted 11mo ago
    [deleted]
- M95D 11mo ago
  Why not run Linux directly? https://www.hackster.io/news/running-linux-on-an-esp32-s3-0d96c5a24081 https://www.hackster.io/news/running-linux-on-an-esp32-s3-0d...
  - HardwareLust 11mo ago
    Pretty sure this project was for entertainment purposes only, not as a solution for an existing problem.
fouc 11mo ago
I was curious what the "cheapest" ready-to-use ESP32-S3 setup would be, it seems like there are dev boards with built-in displays ranging from 3.5" to 5", WiFI/BT/USB-C for $20-$30 on ebay. I guess those of you doing IoT / home assistant stuff would likely know about these. Just found out about ESPHome[0] [0] https://esphome.io https://esphome.io
- dccoolgai 11mo ago
  You can buy the Microcenter knockoff one (Inland) for under $10
  - fouc 11mo ago
    Inland seems to be a Microcenter brand. Not sure what model you're referring to, got a link?
- mickelsen 11mo ago
  I’ve picked up a few boards from the Waveshare and Spotpear storefronts on AliExpress: https://wvshare.aliexpress.com/ https://wvshare.aliexpress.com/ https://spotpear.aliexpress.com/ https://spotpear.aliexpress.com/ There you can find the latest launches and different versions depending on your use case. Also, checkout the Luckfox Pico.
phibz 11mo ago
Seems like a better fit for Win 3.11.

95 points by HardwareLust 11mo ago

Super cool work! Here's the emulator source: https://github.com/hchunhui/tiny386 https://github.com/hchunhui/tiny386 I wonder what the "effective" clock of the emulated CPU is, maybe we could run Speedsys or Landmark under DOS on it to see how it fares against a real 386. I happen to have a top-end 386 at 40MHz, 16MB FPM, and S3 801 VGA, but it's not quite fast enough to "enjoy" Win95 for me. :)

stavros 11mo ago
From the looks of the video, neither is this project, which might mean that performance is comparable to the real 386!

gerdesj 11mo ago

Blast! 80386 was removed from Linux only a few years ago. Ironically enough it was the first supported platform because Linus T had one.

mjg59 11mo ago
The article says it supports enough 486 and Pentium instructions to boot modern Linux
- deleted 11mo ago
  [deleted]
M95D 11mo ago
Why not run Linux directly? https://www.hackster.io/news/running-linux-on-an-esp32-s3-0d96c5a24081 https://www.hackster.io/news/running-linux-on-an-esp32-s3-0d...
- HardwareLust 11mo ago
  Pretty sure this project was for entertainment purposes only, not as a solution for an existing problem.

fouc 11mo ago

I was curious what the "cheapest" ready-to-use ESP32-S3 setup would be, it seems like there are dev boards with built-in displays ranging from 3.5" to 5", WiFI/BT/USB-C for $20-$30 on ebay. I guess those of you doing IoT / home assistant stuff would likely know about these. Just found out about ESPHome[0] [0] https://esphome.io https://esphome.io

dccoolgai 11mo ago
You can buy the Microcenter knockoff one (Inland) for under $10
- fouc 11mo ago
  Inland seems to be a Microcenter brand. Not sure what model you're referring to, got a link?
mickelsen 11mo ago
I’ve picked up a few boards from the Waveshare and Spotpear storefronts on AliExpress: https://wvshare.aliexpress.com/ https://wvshare.aliexpress.com/ https://spotpear.aliexpress.com/ https://spotpear.aliexpress.com/ There you can find the latest launches and different versions depending on your use case. Also, checkout the Luckfox Pico.

phibz 11mo ago

Seems like a better fit for Win 3.11.