Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Linux on a Commodore 64

github.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 97 posts

Re: Linux on a Commodore 64

#11

Post by wk_end »

johnwbyrd wrote: post #2

Onno Kortman has taken semu, a minimal RISC-V emulator, and cross-compiled it with llvm-mos, an LLVM port to the MOS 6502 processor, in order to run Linux on the Commodore 64. Kortman writes: "The screenshots took VICE a couple hours in 'warp mode' to generate. So, as is, a real C64 should be able to boot Linux within a week or so."

The 6502 is a notoriously poor target for C compilation, especially C that hasn't been written with the 6502's limitations in mind. I'll bet if you wrote a RISC-V emulator in native 6502 you could get Linux booting on a real machine in a day instead of a week. Think about how many lives that'd save!

https://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?story=Saving_Lives.txt

Re: Linux on a Commodore 64

#16

Post by nxobject »

johnwbyrd wrote: post #2

Onno Kortman has taken semu, a minimal RISC-V emulator, and cross-compiled it with llvm-mos, an LLVM port to the MOS 6502 processor, in order to run Linux on the Commodore 64. Kortman writes: "The screenshots took VICE a couple hours in 'warp mode' to generate. So, as is, a real C64 should be able to boot Linux within a week or so."

Oh wow! This bootstrapping method reminds me of yet another Linux-on-an-8-bit-micro project (https://dmitry.gr/?r=05.Projects&proj=07.%20Linux%20on%208bi...), which used an 8-bit AVR with an ARMv5 emulator. But, this takes the cake in terms of geek coolness.

Re: Linux on a Commodore 64

#17

Post by johnwbyrd »

wk_end wrote: post #11
johnwbyrd wrote: post #2

Onno Kortman has taken semu, a minimal RISC-V emulator, and cross-compiled it with llvm-mos, an LLVM port to the MOS 6502 processor, in order to run Linux on the Commodore 64. Kortman writes: "The screenshots took VICE a couple hours in 'warp mode' to generate. So, as is, a real C64 should be able to boot Linux within a week or so."

The 6502 is a notoriously poor target for C compilation, especially C that hasn't been written with the 6502's limitations in mind. I'll bet if you wrote a RISC-V emulator in native 6502 you could get Linux booting on a real machine in a day instead of a week. Think about how many lives that'd save! https://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?story=Saving_Lives.txt

Says you. llvm-mos generates surprisingly efficient 6502 code given its age and maturity. Don't take my word for it, try some experiments with it on godbolt.
Post reply on HN