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Linux on an 8-bit micro? (2012)

dmitry.gr

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Re: Linux on an 8-bit micro? (2012)

#11

Post by nullc »

teddyh wrote: post #9

More like Linux on 32-bit ARM, but running in an emulator on an 8-bit processor. I don't think this qualifies as “Running” Linux on an 8-bit processor. I voiced the same complaint when somebody claimed to “run” Windows 3 on an Apple watch (IIRC), which also was achieved by running a standard PC-hardware emulator, and running Windows 3 on that. These are somewhat interesting accomplishments, but the click-bait factor…

So Linux isn't 'running' on your x86_64 cpu because cpu is microcoded... or transmeta? Or... Linux is written in C.. so it's not running on your computer because it doesn't execute C directly?

Come on. There is a 8-bit microcontroller running a linux system, the rest is implementation details and semantics.

Re: Linux on an 8-bit micro? (2012)

#15

Post by david-given »

See also ELKS, which can run an (extremely stripped down and extensively rewritten) Linux kernel on a 16-bit 8086:

http://elks.sourceforge.net/

Also Fuzix, which can run a Unix-like on a variety of tiny, ancient processors like the Z80 and 6809; I've ported it to the MSP430, a modern micontroller, and I also have a half-finished port to the Raspberry Pi that I must get round to fixing one day (hilariously, the Pi has more RAM than Fuzix can handle)...

https://github.com/EtchedPixels/FUZIX

Both of those run natively, of course.

Re: Linux on an 8-bit micro? (2012)

#16

Post by derefr »

nullc wrote: post #11
teddyh wrote: post #9

More like Linux on 32-bit ARM, but running in an emulator on an 8-bit processor. I don't think this qualifies as “Running” Linux on an 8-bit processor. I voiced the same complaint when somebody claimed to “run” Windows 3 on an Apple watch (IIRC), which also was achieved by running a standard PC-hardware emulator, and running Windows 3 on that. These are somewhat interesting accomplishments, but the click-bait factor…

So Linux isn't 'running' on your x86_64 cpu because cpu is microcoded... or transmeta? Or... Linux is written in C.. so it's not running on your computer because it doesn't execute C directly? Come on. There is a 8-bit microcontroller running a linux system, the rest is implementation details and semantics.

I think the argument is that one would expect "Linux running on architecture Foo" to imply support in Linux for Foo, rather than support in Foo for Linux that allows Linux to run unmodified. I certainly expected, when I clicked, to read about someone's effort to rewrite a minimal subset of the Linux kernel to use exclusively 8-bit registers and no MMU.

Re: Linux on an 8-bit micro? (2012)

#18

Post by Jaruzel »

paulannesley wrote: post #2

Very cool (TL;DR: it's an ARM emulator for 8-bit AVR which can slowly boot Linux). Could do with a [2012] tag in the title.

Why are people TL;DRing a lot of posts recently? Surely on HN, the joy is in discovering the linked content themselves surely?

If you don't have time to read HN, and need TL:DRs then you should question why you are here in the first place.

--

Vote down if you like, I joined HN to get away from inane commentary and TL:DR nonsense that's so prevalent on other sites.

Re: Linux on an 8-bit micro? (2012)

#19

Post by JonnieCache »

Jaruzel wrote: post #18
paulannesley wrote: post #2

Very cool (TL;DR: it's an ARM emulator for 8-bit AVR which can slowly boot Linux). Could do with a [2012] tag in the title.

Why are people TL;DRing a lot of posts recently? Surely on HN, the joy is in discovering the linked content themselves surely? If you don't have time to read HN, and need TL:DRs then you should question why you are here in the first place. -- Vote down if you like, I joined HN to get away from inane commentary and TL:DR nonsense that's so prevalent on other sites.

as much as tl;dr is increasingly irritating when used in this way, baiting downvotes is also not cool.

Re: Linux on an 8-bit micro? (2012)

#20

Post by tomtomtom777 »

teddyh wrote: post #9

More like Linux on 32-bit ARM, but running in an emulator on an 8-bit processor. I don't think this qualifies as “Running” Linux on an 8-bit processor. I voiced the same complaint when somebody claimed to “run” Windows 3 on an Apple watch (IIRC), which also was achieved by running a standard PC-hardware emulator, and running Windows 3 on that. These are somewhat interesting accomplishments, but the click-bait factor…

I wouldn't exactly call it click-bait.

The crux of both the article and the accomplishment is writing an 32-bits ARM emulator that works on an 8-bit machine.

Definitely not child's play, and a valid route to run Linux on 8-bit.

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