My Business Card Runs Linux • Hacker News Board

Re: My Business Card Runs Linux

#301

Post by RealityVoid » Tue, Dec 24, 2019, 10:31 PM UTC

joezydeco wrote: post #120

neurostimulant wrote: post #67

To me it's truly mind-bogging that a tiny $1.42 chip contains almost everything needed to boot Linux: a 500mhz cpu, 32MB SDRAM, 2D GPU, SD/MMC support, and USB controller, all packaged inside a 10mm x 10mm chip? It makes me really want to get into embedded development.

The roadblock has always been the MMU. Vanilla Linux won't work without it, and uCLinux is always in some strange phase of support for newer architectures if it's supported at all. I found a decent port of uCLinux to the Cortex-M3 once, but the host core was 120 MHz and it was pretty much a science experiment and not much more.

I expect that it being a M3 it had a MPU but not am MMU.

Re: My Business Card Runs Linux

#302

Post by hirundo » Tue, Dec 24, 2019, 10:32 PM UTC

serf wrote: post #282

GordonS wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hah, you had it great! My first PC was a 286, which IIRC either had no HDD, OR. 20MB HDD (might be mixing it with our next PC, which was a 386). I'm pushing 40, and still shake my head in wonder sometimes about just how much is possible at such small scale and cost. But this is now turning into "when I were a lad..." :)

Oh, you kids! My XT had an 8088 @ ~4mhz in it, and we pushed it uphill to school both ways, in the snow! It was multi-functional though. The power supply was inefficient enough to heat the room, while simultaneously being heavy enough to bludgeon large creatures for sustenance. Something inside me misses the radiant heat, sitting here on a cold day with my chilly metallic laptop.

My Heathkit H89 had a Z80, 16K of RAM and a built in cassette interface. And we liked it.

Re: My Business Card Runs Linux

#303

Post by pkolaczk » Tue, Dec 24, 2019, 10:34 PM UTC

jaclaz wrote: post #95

pkolaczk wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't get this lead-free hatred on internet forums. People say they can't solder with lead-free, and that it is terrible, and that joints look dull. So much hatred that I actually tried it out. And I found the process is basically just the same and there is nothing to be afraid of. Just set the solder iron temperature a bit higher and that's it. Works like a charm.

My note was not at all about lead-free hate, actually, since several years, everyone in EU (and I believe in US as well) has been using lead-free solder (ROHS is 2003, if I recall correctly). As you say it is just a matter of slightly increasing the soldering iron temperature, but it doesn't end there and there may be issues further on (JFYI): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whisker_(metallurgy) It seems like lead-free…

I've heard about whiskers, but isn't it a mostly solved problem now with low Ag alloys like SAC0307?

Re: My Business Card Runs Linux

#304

Post by TheRealPomax » Tue, Dec 24, 2019, 10:40 PM UTC

Okay, but... you could have gotten a better email address at least? Random numbers after your name is barely a step up from "at yahoo dot com"

Re: My Business Card Runs Linux

#305

Post by cubano » Tue, Dec 24, 2019, 10:46 PM UTC

hirundo wrote: post #302

serf wrote: post #282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, you kids! My XT had an 8088 @ ~4mhz in it, and we pushed it uphill to school both ways, in the snow! It was multi-functional though. The power supply was inefficient enough to heat the room, while simultaneously being heavy enough to bludgeon large creatures for sustenance. Something inside me misses the radiant heat, sitting here on a cold day with my chilly metallic laptop.

My Heathkit H89 had a Z80, 16K of RAM and a built in cassette interface. And we liked it.

I just flipped a bank of 16 switches by hand with vacuum tube gates and core memory...punch cards are for sissies!

Re: My Business Card Runs Linux

#306

Post by rramadass » Tue, Dec 24, 2019, 10:50 PM UTC

Here is another very similar project with full details;

Epaper based Business Card : https://www.paulschow.com/2016/08/epaper-business-card.html

Re: My Business Card Runs Linux

#307

Post by cubano » Tue, Dec 24, 2019, 10:52 PM UTC

xenospn wrote: post #245

jbuzbee wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You were living large! My first Linux computer was a 20Mhz 80386SX with a 40MB hard drive partitioned half for Windows 3.0 and half for Linux (SLS) and swap. It had a whopping 4MB of RAM and I also compiled my own kernel making sure to trim down features as much as possible. It was magic seeing X11 come up for the first time just like the big-bucks Sun boxes!

Not to brag but I got a 4.77MHz 8086 XT PC for my 8th birthday :) It had a whopping 256KB of RAM, a monochrome display (later upgraded to a 4 color CGA that blew my mind), and two (yes, TWO) Floppy drives.

My dad got one of those for us both to use...what was truly "whopping" about it was its price...

If I remember right it was almost $3k...but that included that blazing fast 300bps Hayes modem for wide-area networking.

And my mind was truly blown when we replaced the 2nd floppy with a more-memory-then-we-will-EVER-need 20MB hard drive...what could we do with all those bits??

Re: My Business Card Runs Linux

#308

Post by kortilla » Tue, Dec 24, 2019, 10:54 PM UTC

GhettoMaestro wrote: post #77

jlg23 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OTOH, a security conscious engineer could exploit this to have the business card call home and automatically block communications from the company so one does not waste time with them ;)

And just like that, you committed a felony.

Not a felony if it transmits over a cell network that the usb interface was activated.

Re: My Business Card Runs Linux

#309

Post by DrJones1098 » Tue, Dec 24, 2019, 10:57 PM UTC

aperrien wrote: post #157

nickthemagicman wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That was my first thought. If someone gave me this at defcon I would not use it.

Would you use anything given to you from a random individual at defcon?

Haha very good point! I would barely feel comfortable about a regular business card.

Re: My Business Card Runs Linux

#310

Post by sabujp » Tue, Dec 24, 2019, 11:03 PM UTC

jbuzbee wrote: post #211

nabla9 wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Calling this embedded system feels like insult to the spirit of 'running light without overbyte', because it's so comically capable. My first PC had 66/33 MHz 80486 processor and 8 MB ram, 320 MB HDD. You could run AutoCAD, play Doom, Civilization, have dual boot for Linux, Windows 3.11 etc. It could compile Linux from source.

You were living large! My first Linux computer was a 20Mhz 80386SX with a 40MB hard drive partitioned half for Windows 3.0 and half for Linux (SLS) and swap. It had a whopping 4MB of RAM and I also compiled my own kernel making sure to trim down features as much as possible. It was magic seeing X11 come up for the first time just like the big-bucks Sun boxes!

same here, packard bell but iirc it was 20/40Mhz with 40MHz being the turbo, but before that I did have a zenith 8088 dual 5.25" floppy system that had to boot dos with one disk and run programs off the other (mostly written in gwbasic).