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A 386 PC for Your RP2350

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Re: A 386 PC for Your RP2350

#61

Post by Narishma »

ilaksh wrote: post #55
weinzierl wrote: post #2

Looks like it can even run Windows 96. Incredibly cool. I'll have to try if it runs my old Slackware kernal 1.2.13 some time. I used it with a 4MiB, 25Mhz 386 DX back in the time, so it should.

I don't know if they have some kind of magically genius caching system but the chip only has 512kb of SRAM and a little cache and the rest has to be managed by flash memory which is like 30+ times slower so I dunno about the performance of that.

The boards using this chip typically have 8 MB of PSRAM from what I've seen.

Re: A 386 PC for Your RP2350

#62

Post by Narishma »

lightedman wrote: post #41
vardump wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You certainly did not, as Win95 requires 32-bit, 80386 or better. 286 was a 16-bit CPU.

Windows 95 had a beta build for 286 systems, which is what this system 'ran.' Bet you don't even know about Windows 97.

It did not and it wouldn't have made any sense. By the time Windows 95 came out 286 systems were obsolete. They could barely run Windows 3.

Re: A 386 PC for Your RP2350

#63

Post by ilaksh »

Narishma wrote: post #61
ilaksh wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know if they have some kind of magically genius caching system but the chip only has 512kb of SRAM and a little cache and the rest has to be managed by flash memory which is like 30+ times slower so I dunno about the performance of that.

The boards using this chip typically have 8 MB of PSRAM from what I've seen.

yeah but the PSRAM is going to cause a delay

Re: A 386 PC for Your RP2350

#64

Post by Nexxxeh »

broswell wrote: post #48

Which of the 4 boards on do you recommend as easiest? I would love to demo at the Computer Museum @ System Source https://museum.sysrc.com It looks like I would have to build my own frank board. Any off the shelf boards?

To save anyone the Google, there's an S missing from the URL.

https://museum.syssrc.com/

Re: A 386 PC for Your RP2350

#65

Post by luma »

ilaksh wrote: post #54

The problem is PC programs assume 640kb of RAM and the RP2350 has 512kb + 16kb cache SRAM so anything that goes past that has a sudden 40 cycle access delay. So even if you account for the RP2350 being 6 times faster than the RP2350, I think the emulation would randomly start to stutter a lot in certain circumstances waiting to access that part of the memory.

That isn't true to my knowledge for old DOS applications (including games). 640kb was the upper limit, not the lower bound.

Re: A 386 PC for Your RP2350

#66

Post by ilaksh »

luma wrote: post #65
ilaksh wrote: post #54

The problem is PC programs assume 640kb of RAM and the RP2350 has 512kb + 16kb cache SRAM so anything that goes past that has a sudden 40 cycle access delay. So even if you account for the RP2350 being 6 times faster than the RP2350, I think the emulation would randomly start to stutter a lot in certain circumstances waiting to access that part of the memory.

That isn't true to my knowledge for old DOS applications (including games). 640kb was the upper limit, not the lower bound.

yeah but for 386?

Re: A 386 PC for Your RP2350

#67

Post by peter_d_sherman »

guenthert wrote: post #22

Holy cow, a 386 with VGA and SoundBlaster on a $1 MCU? I recall VICE emulating the Brotkasten on 386 PCs some thirty years ago, later UAE doing it for Amiga. How long til my currently running system (anno 2016) is being emulated?

>Holy cow, a 386 with VGA and SoundBlaster on a $1 MCU?

The right software -- really does add value(!) to (let's-just-say-it-isn't-an-nVidia-GB300!) hardware, now doesn't it? :-)

I don't know about anyone else -- but I'm sold!

The value proposition on this one is truly awesome!

Re: A 386 PC for Your RP2350

#68

Post by geonineties »

st_goliath wrote: post #15
xhrpost wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did not realize that Win95 can technically run on a 20Mhz 386DX.

> Win95 can technically run on a 20Mhz 386DX s/technically/allegedly/ supposedly with a minimum of 4M RAM even! [1] I have a machine with twice that clock and twice that RAM that a friends parents wanted to toss out[2]. I spent the better part of a day getting Windows 3.11 and Office 4.3 to run. Playing around with it for a bit, I highly doubt that Windows 95 on minimum requirements would be anything but endlessly fr…

I ran Windows 95 on a 386SX-16 with an 80387, with 5MB of ram for a year as my main machine. It ran about as well as 3.1 did. The only real drawback was the disk space required for 95 over 3.1 + DOS.

Re: A 386 PC for Your RP2350

#69

Post by sillywalk »

kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #53
theamk wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Either "already" or "not any time soon", depending on how you count. Already - because you have VMs and backwards compatibility. As long as you keep using Intel x86_64, your apps would run, no emulation needed. Or you can use the VM. Not any time soon - because the computers are not speeding up that fast . 10 year old computers are still being used today, and even the latest CPUs are not orders of magnitude faster. S…

16-bit x86 code dependent on interacting with real hardware under precise timing doesn't always work well in a VM.

> 16-bit x86 code dependent on interacting with real hardware under precise timing doesn't always work well in a VM.

This reminds me of the 8088mph demo - 1k colours in CGA, and a bunch of other impressive stuff.

8088 MPH: We Break All Your Emulators (oldskool.org)

319 points by drv on April 8, 2015 | hide | past | favorite | 99 comments

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9338944

https://trixter.oldskool.org/2015/04/07/8088-mph-we-break-al...

Re: A 386 PC for Your RP2350

#70

Post by aswanson »

IshKebab wrote: post #17
cold_pizz4 wrote: post #13

I love it! The RP2350 is probably the most underrated microcontroller available today.

Overrated surely? It's a pretty bog standard MCU, no wireless support, mediocre deep sleep. I don't know why you'd pick it over an ESP32 or nRF5x. The only standout feature is PIO which is definitely interesting but very niche. It's also patented so say goodbye to any portability or FOSS vibes. (If you want a FOSS version btw, check out https://baochip.com/ ) If it didn't have the Raspberry name behind it nobody woul…

Esp32 is a power hog and lacks pin configurability.
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