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A 386 PC for Your RP2350

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Re: A 386 PC for Your RP2350

#31

Post by Neywiny »

willis936 wrote: post #19
IshKebab wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

The PIO are pretty great and not niche. Almost any embedded application needs mixed signal interfaces. You could say embedded applications are niche, but not that embedded applications needing mixed signal interfaces. A serious warning: read the RP2350 errata carefully. You may be better off buying old 2040 inventory.

Mixed signal means analog and digital

Re: A 386 PC for Your RP2350

#32

Post by lightedman »

xhrpost wrote: post #6
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.

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

We had Win95 running on a 25MHz 4MB FPRAM 286 back in high school. Poor teacher, half of first period was roughly how long it took to boot up, only for them to exit into DOS mode because the grading software and report card software was DOS-native and would hang if you tried running it under the GUI.

Re: A 386 PC for Your RP2350

#33

Post by sh-run »

willis936 wrote: post #19
IshKebab wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

The PIO are pretty great and not niche. Almost any embedded application needs mixed signal interfaces. You could say embedded applications are niche, but not that embedded applications needing mixed signal interfaces. A serious warning: read the RP2350 errata carefully. You may be better off buying old 2040 inventory.

RP2350 adds secure boot and encrypted boot. I am working on a little hardware device for a CTF and selected it as my MCU so participants can't just dump the flash to grab the flags.

Re: A 386 PC for Your RP2350

#36

Post by soneil »

my123 wrote: post #29
tosti wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, that's pretty much an entire operating system. Just one that lacks its own kernel. It even takes a while to boot up!

Eight Megabytes And Constantly Swapping

Eight Megabytes would be a feature, these days.

Re: A 386 PC for Your RP2350

#37

Post by gamedna »

weinzierl wrote: post #7
fifilura wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(slackware) Just need to find where you stored all 20 floppy disks...

I think it came with two 3.5" disks, a bootdisk and a rootdisk, as well as two CDs. One was the actual distro, the other a sunsite mirror. At least that is what I remember and while that memory might be hazy I know exactly where my precious is.

Early releases of Slackware were only floppy. The boot/root CD release came later. I fondly recall wasting hours in a computer lab @ university using 20 Sun Sparcstation 2 floppy drives to write the slackware floppies for me and my friend. Walking out with a brick of floppies was pure bliss (achievement unlocked).

Re: A 386 PC for Your RP2350

#38

Post by vardump »

willis936 wrote: post #19
IshKebab wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

The PIO are pretty great and not niche. Almost any embedded application needs mixed signal interfaces. You could say embedded applications are niche, but not that embedded applications needing mixed signal interfaces. A serious warning: read the RP2350 errata carefully. You may be better off buying old 2040 inventory.

> read the RP2350 errata carefully

Even the latest rev? Can you elaborate a bit?

Re: A 386 PC for Your RP2350

#39

Post by vardump »

lightedman wrote: post #32
xhrpost wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

We had Win95 running on a 25MHz 4MB FPRAM 286 back in high school. Poor teacher, half of first period was roughly how long it took to boot up, only for them to exit into DOS mode because the grading software and report card software was DOS-native and would hang if you tried running it under the GUI.

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

Re: A 386 PC for Your RP2350

#40

Post by glitchc »

badsectoracula wrote: post #14
xhrpost wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

It "technically" can - i used Win95 on an AMD 386DX with 4MB of RAM back in the 90s for a little. Most of the time was spent waiting for the computer to do something while the HDD was constantly working. The Pentium MMX with 32MB i replaced it with was MUCH faster, practically everything was instant.

Yup, the RAM was the main bottleneck. 8MB was the minimum for Win9x, 16MB and above led to a fast experience.
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