ELKS: Linux for 16-bit Intel Processors
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ELKS: Linux for 16-bit Intel Processors
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Re: ELKS: Linux for 16-bit Intel Processors
#2What would be really interesting: porting DOSEMU 1.4.0 to it. This would give us a maintained unix-like OS combined with a huge abandonware dos library turning those old machines into something fun and maybe useful.
Re: ELKS: Linux for 16-bit Intel Processors
#3Wait, "ROM-based systems"? Were there such x86 micros and is this saying you could run Linux from ROM?
That's super interesting.
Re: ELKS: Linux for 16-bit Intel Processors
#4Wait, "ROM-based systems"? Were there such x86 micros and is this saying you could run Linux from ROM? That's super interesting.
The 8086 and 8088 etc. were relatively popular for embedded devices. For example some early 90s Apple printers used an 80186 as the controller. Such designs were often incompatible with the IBM PC; 8086 doesn't necessarily mean PC compatible.
Re: ELKS: Linux for 16-bit Intel Processors
#5Wait, "ROM-based systems"? Were there such x86 micros and is this saying you could run Linux from ROM? That's super interesting.
The Tandy 1000 SL/2 I grew up with had DOS 3.3 in ROM, mounted on D:\
Re: ELKS: Linux for 16-bit Intel Processors
#6Wait, "ROM-based systems"? Were there such x86 micros and is this saying you could run Linux from ROM? That's super interesting.
I've never seen a fully ROM-based PC, but I have worked with ISA NE2000 NICs with boot ROMs that allowed them to diskless boot into a DOS-based Novell NetWare client. It wouldn't surprise me if there were ROM-based local boot environments on ISA cards.
The Cisco PIX firewall, in it's original incarnation, booted from non-volatile memory (I don't know if it was EEPROM or flash) an ISA card.
Re: ELKS: Linux for 16-bit Intel Processors
#7What would be really interesting: porting DOSEMU 1.4.0 to it. This would give us a maintained unix-like OS combined with a huge abandonware dos library turning those old machines into something fun and maybe useful.
That makes no sense, since DOSEMU is based on virtual 8086 mode, which requires a 80386, while ELKS is for 8086-286 CPUs.
You can just run MS-DOS or FreeDOS directly on those machines, that's what the machines were made for.
Re: ELKS: Linux for 16-bit Intel Processors
#8Wait, "ROM-based systems"? Were there such x86 micros and is this saying you could run Linux from ROM? That's super interesting.
The DiskOnChip was a somewhat popular solution (think of thinclients), often running stripped down versions of Linux in the early 00s.
Here you can see it on an external board: https://www.os2museum.com/wp/diskonchip/
I have a few thinclients with a socket directly on the mainboard for a DOC
Re: ELKS: Linux for 16-bit Intel Processors
#9Wait, "ROM-based systems"? Were there such x86 micros and is this saying you could run Linux from ROM? That's super interesting.
Some of the Tandy 1000 computers (such as the HX) had MS-DOS 2.11 in ROM. So it's not unheard of for an IBM-Compatible PC to have an operating system in ROM.
Also the "Macintosh Classic" had System 6.0.3 in ROM as well, but you had to use a keyboard shortcut to boot from there. It did not run normally.
Re: ELKS: Linux for 16-bit Intel Processors
#10They mention "SBC"s. Is this something that is intended also for modern 16bit SBCs?