8 ms·
This is probably one of the crazier projects I've ever seen. I've often contemplated what running a "true os" on an 8 bit CPU would entail, and TBH the idea of
by duaneb 12y ago
This is probably one of the crazier projects I've ever seen. I've often contemplated what running a "true os" on an 8 bit CPU would entail, and TBH the idea of an emulator never struck me.
On top of that, a hand-wired linux computer with hand-written arm emulator? Ridiculous.
- pjc50 12y agoWell, you could run CP/M on an 8-bit system, which would have been called a "true OS" at the time it was written and sold ...
- dalke 12y agoOr if that's not "true" enough, Xenix was a Unix for 8-bit systems.
- justin66 12y agoXenix ran on 16-bit systems.
- dalke 12y agoOops! Yes. 16 bit. I was thinking of the 8 bit data bus of the 16 bit 8088. What about Micronix? http://www.retrotechnology.com/herbs_stuff/mnix_micronix.html http://www.retrotechnology.com/herbs_stuff/mnix_micronix.htm... - "As far as I know, Micronix was the only Unix-like multiuser system ever to run on an 8 bit processor."
- Zardoz84 12y agoFUZIX and UZIX runs on an Z80
- dalke 12y agoCool! And it meets the 'multiuser' qualifier too: "UZI180 is a multi-tasking, multi-user operating for the Zilog Z180 family of microprocessors.", from https://github.com/EtchedPixels/FUZIX/tree/master/Kernel https://github.com/EtchedPixels/FUZIX/tree/master/Kernel .
- duaneb 12y agoWow, great find! Thanks!
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- duaneb 12y agoHah, I've actually run CP/M on a DEC Robin! I wouldn't call that a "true os" by my (own, flawed, unspecified) definition because it doesn't have memory protection or preemptive multitasking.
- pantalaimon 12y agoWhat about RIOT [1], Contiki [2] or TinyOS [3]? [1] http://riot-os.de/ http://riot-os.de/ [2] http://www.contiki-os.org/ http://www.contiki-os.org/ [3] http://www.tinyos.net/ http://www.tinyos.net/
- duaneb 12y agoOf those, it seems like only TinyOS would qualify (a full userland stack that you can develop from) under the same qualifications that netbsd might qualify.... To be clear, by "true os", I mean a posix runtime, preemptive multitasking with threads and processes, memory protection. Still, cool links (I'll save that TinyOS for later this week), and I like the username.
- revelation 12y agoMost 8 bit micros don't have an MMU, so you can't have memory protection or virtual memory. That's a hardware limitation.
- duaneb 12y ago> so you can't have memory protection You can if you emulate all memory.... I had never considered that solution before, that was my original point :)
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- pantalaimon 12y agoI think you will like NuttX [1] even more :) [1] http://www.nuttx.org/ http://www.nuttx.org/
- reidrac 12y agoI'm not an expert but AFAIK it makes sense: he's using an AVR and that's Harvard architecture, meaning code and data use different buses so all you can run must be in the flash of the microprocessor. So emulation is a way to workaround that "limitation". Edit: on mobile, typos