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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)

#21

Post by ggus »

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.

I find tl;dr to be extremely useful to find out if the article is worth reading or not.

There is no joy in being fooled by a clickbaity title. Also, HN is not a novel book, therefore I do not feel spoiled. I always silently thank people that write tl;dr. They try to save my time.

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

#22

Post by ggus »

JonnieCache wrote: post #19
Jaruzel wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

could you explain why is it irritating?

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

#23

Post by qb45 »

JonnieCache wrote: post #17
oldmanjay wrote: post #7

Something about this just gives me joy. It's so ridiculous that it's beautiful.

>Something about this... I reckon it's probably the SIMM soldered to the breadboard.

It's perfboard. Now, a SIMM soldered to breadboard, that would be something ;)

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

#24

Post by poizan42 »

derefr wrote: post #16
nullc wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Linux can already run on MMU-less systems (CONFIG_NOMMU). GCC already supports AVRs, though you may have to tweak the backend a bit so ints are 32-bit wide etc.

These are not the big issues in porting the Linux kernel to an AVR. The major problem is that AVR is Harvard architecture and there's probably tons of assumptions in the kernel that code and data resides in the same memory space.

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

#25

Post by teddyh »

tomtomtom777 wrote: post #20
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.

Rhetorical question: If writing the emulator was the “crux”, then why doesn’t the headline mention it? Why isn’t the whole article about it? I would certainly have upvoted and whole-heartedly lauded a story entitled “An 32-bit ARM emulator for an 8-bit CPU”.

Instead, they used the headline and article content to heavily imply to actually have ported Linux to an 8-bit processor. It’s not until into about half the article that they reveal the emulation bit. Therefore, click bait, pure and simple.

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

#26

Post by [deleted] »

poizan42 wrote: post #24
derefr wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Linux can already run on MMU-less systems (CONFIG_NOMMU). GCC already supports AVRs, though you may have to tweak the backend a bit so ints are 32-bit wide etc. These are not the big issues in porting the Linux kernel to an AVR. The major problem is that AVR is Harvard architecture and there's probably tons of assumptions in the kernel that code and data resides in the same memory space.

[deleted]

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

#28

Post by qb45 »

ggus wrote: post #21
Jaruzel wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I find tl;dr to be extremely useful to find out if the article is worth reading or not. There is no joy in being fooled by a clickbaity title. Also, HN is not a novel book, therefore I do not feel spoiled. I always silently thank people that write tl;dr. They try to save my time.

Exactly. I would happily read about some working 8bit port of Linux, but this thing here is just useless gimmick, compared to what it claims to be.
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