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A 1982 Commodore 64 web server, 64k RAM, 1 MHz CPU, running Contiki

c64web.com

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Re: A 1982 Commodore 64 web server, 64k RAM, 1 MHz CPU, running Contiki

#11

Post by Deestan »

adamgb wrote: post #10
lucb1e wrote: post #8

Should I find it ironic that it's down?

You would if you were Alanis Morissette. Otherwise, no.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irony

Dramatic Irony seems to fit.

> Dramatic irony is a disparity of awareness between actor and observer: when words and actions possess significance that the listener or audience understands, but the speaker or character does not, for example when a character says to another "I'll see you tomorrow!" when the audience (but not the character) knows that the character will die before morning.

"I set up a web server!" when the audience (but not the character) knows that the web server will die before morning.

Re: A 1982 Commodore 64 web server, 64k RAM, 1 MHz CPU, running Contiki

#12

Post by michaelpinto »

Kids today forget that actually kids back the day ran BBSs with C64s which wasn't quite the internet but still pretty cool: http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2005/07/my_commodore_64.html

I also have very fond memories of dialing up Quantum Link which eventually became AOL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_Link

Re: A 1982 Commodore 64 web server, 64k RAM, 1 MHz CPU, running Contiki

#14

Post by DanBC »

TazeTSchnitzel wrote: post #5

Hackers love tiny web server devices. Hackers are also great at overloading them.

(http://www.csie.ntu.edu.tw/~fuh/fcourse/norton4/paper/Got%20...)

> It is based on the world's smallest implementation of a TCP/IP stack -- which is implmented on a small 8-pin low-power microcontroller .. using a mere 512 words of program ROM. If IPic can fit in a PIC, it can fit in just about anything.

> The TCP/IP code itself fits in about 256 bytes (12-bit), and the rest is some extra salt-and-pepper and miscellaneous code.

> The chip is a PIC 12C509A, running at 4MHz (Internal RC clock).

> implementing the IPic tiny TCP/IP stack,

> a HTTP 1.0 compliant web-server,

> a simple telnet server (for editing files on the chip),

> an 24LC256 i2c EEPROM

I think someone has done something smaller by now.

--- EDIT

Here are some other tiny devices.

(http://d116.com/ace/) - "the webACE: a Fairchild ACE1101MT8 microcontroller programmed as a Web server and containing two tiny web pages in its on-chip memory. Since the ACE1101MT8 is the smallest available microcontroller, I believe that this really is the World's Smallest Web Server."

(http://www.magic-1.org/) big, but home built CPU. "This web page is being served by a completely home-built computer: Bill Buzbee's Magic-1 HomebrewCPU. Magic-1 doesn't use an off-the-shelf CPU. Instead, its custom CPU is built out of ~200 74 series TTL chips."

(http://kl.net/atari/) no longer serving pages, this was a web server on an Atari 800

Re: A 1982 Commodore 64 web server, 64k RAM, 1 MHz CPU, running Contiki

#15

Post by femto »

I'm surprised that there isn't a league table of tiny web servers out there on the Internet. Surely there's a subculture out there who are crazy enough to make a hobby of eking the last little bit of performance out of a Z80, 6800 or 6502? Tightly optimised assembly loops and hand crafted packets competing for the glory of surviving for the longest under a Slashdotting...

Re: A 1982 Commodore 64 web server, 64k RAM, 1 MHz CPU, running Contiki

#16

Post by DanBC »

michaelpinto wrote: post #12

Kids today forget that actually kids back the day ran BBSs with C64s which wasn't quite the internet but still pretty cool: http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2005/07/my_commodore_64.html I also have very fond memories of dialing up Quantum Link which eventually became AOL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_Link

This blurry image (http://i53.tinypic.com/2janfrd.jpg) from 1988 has some nostalgia. ($10 1988 dollars are about $18 2011 dollars.)

Compuserve, charging $11 per hour, had "more than 250,000 subscribers".

The Source, charging $8 per hour, was popular for its conferencing system "parti".

Delphi, charging $6 per hour had a loyal but small (less than 10,000 users) following.

BIX, $9 per hour, grew from a magazine.

Notable quote:

> "This is the computer industry as it used to be: people sharing ideas and solutions without the greed and grit with associated with today's corporate driven, litigation-laced, industry" (this was written over 20 years ago).

Re: A 1982 Commodore 64 web server, 64k RAM, 1 MHz CPU, running Contiki

#17

Post by SwellJoe »

michaelpinto wrote: post #12

Kids today forget that actually kids back the day ran BBSs with C64s which wasn't quite the internet but still pretty cool: http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2005/07/my_commodore_64.html I also have very fond memories of dialing up Quantum Link which eventually became AOL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_Link

The first real programming I did was writing games and mods for the Color64 BBS I ran when I was about 12. It was actually an interesting and modern design, I now realize...its main loop was in assembly while the apps and forum and other stuff was in BASIC, making it, effectively, a scriptable system (live scriptable, even, since you could change things on the running system). It was also a somewhat multi-user system, in that a sysop could interact with users while they were on the system. The reason it wasn't all written in BASIC was that BASIC wasn't fast enough to serve a 2400 baud connection (I believe disk routines also had some reason for being in assembly, as well), much less the 38,400 modems supported by Swiftlink.

That old C64, and the BBS culture, shaped me and my life profoundly. I should probably send Greg Pfountz (the author of Color64) a nice thank you email, if I can figure out how to reach him.

The source and manual for Color64 were released years ago, and the manual is an interesting read in terms of understanding the architecture and seeing how advanced a system could be on such a tiny machine.

Re: A 1982 Commodore 64 web server, 64k RAM, 1 MHz CPU, running Contiki

#18

Post by GigabyteCoin »

femto wrote: post #15

I'm surprised that there isn't a league table of tiny web servers out there on the Internet. Surely there's a subculture out there who are crazy enough to make a hobby of eking the last little bit of performance out of a Z80, 6800 or 6502? Tightly optimised assembly loops and hand crafted packets competing for the glory of surviving for the longest under a Slashdotting...

It is tough for many hackers to get their hands on the machines you mention there, but I could see something like that taking off with all the Raspberry Pis that are being delivered as we speak.

Re: A 1982 Commodore 64 web server, 64k RAM, 1 MHz CPU, running Contiki

#19

Post by bane »

SwellJoe wrote: post #17
michaelpinto wrote: post #12

Kids today forget that actually kids back the day ran BBSs with C64s which wasn't quite the internet but still pretty cool: http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2005/07/my_commodore_64.html I also have very fond memories of dialing up Quantum Link which eventually became AOL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_Link

The first real programming I did was writing games and mods for the Color64 BBS I ran when I was about 12. It was actually an interesting and modern design, I now realize...its main loop was in assembly while the apps and forum and other stuff was in BASIC, making it, effectively, a scriptable system (live scriptable, even, since you could change things on the running system). It was also a somewhat multi-user system…

I bet one of these are him:

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/greg-pfountz/5/41a/4a1

https://twitter.com/gpfountz

Re: A 1982 Commodore 64 web server, 64k RAM, 1 MHz CPU, running Contiki

#20

Post by dhughes »

michaelpinto wrote: post #12

Kids today forget that actually kids back the day ran BBSs with C64s which wasn't quite the internet but still pretty cool: http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2005/07/my_commodore_64.html I also have very fond memories of dialing up Quantum Link which eventually became AOL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_Link

I was too poor for a C64 and we had a party line :(
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