Linux on an 8-bit micro (2012)

Post by dalke » Wed, Dec 24, 2014, 4:30 PM UTC

Zardoz84 wrote: post #30

dalke wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oops! Yes. 16 bit. I was thinking of the 8 bit data bus of the 16 bit 8088. What about Micronix? http://www.retrotechnology.com/herbs_stuff/mnix_micronix.htm... - "As far as I know, Micronix was the only Unix-like multiuser system ever to run on an 8 bit processor."

FUZIX and UZIX runs on an Z80

Post by myrandomcomment » Wed, Dec 24, 2014, 6:17 PM UTC

cnvogel wrote: post #18

myrandomcomment wrote: post #11

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contiki Runs on 6510(6502) with 64kb on a Commodore 64. While is is cool it would be more interesting to have it run native and not via an ARM emulation layer.

Contiki already runs natively on AVR. https://github.com/contiki-os/contiki/wiki/Avr-platforms

Post by duaneb » Wed, Dec 24, 2014, 6:49 PM UTC

pjc50 wrote: post #21

duaneb wrote: post #7

This is probably one of the crazier projects I've ever seen. I've often contemplated what running a "true os" on an 8 bit CPU would entail, and TBH the idea of an emulator never struck me. On top of that, a hand-wired linux computer with hand-written arm emulator? Ridiculous.

Well, you could run CP/M on an 8-bit system, which would have been called a "true OS" at the time it was written and sold ...

Post by revelation » Wed, Dec 24, 2014, 6:52 PM UTC

duaneb wrote: post #34

pantalaimon wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about RIOT [1], Contiki [2] or TinyOS [3]? [1] http://riot-os.de/ [2] http://www.contiki-os.org/ [3] http://www.tinyos.net/

Of those, it seems like only TinyOS would qualify (a full userland stack that you can develop from) under the same qualifications that netbsd might qualify.... To be clear, by "true os", I mean a posix runtime, preemptive multitasking with threads and processes, memory protection. Still, cool links (I'll save that TinyOS for later this week), and I like the username.

Post by duaneb » Wed, Dec 24, 2014, 7:48 PM UTC

revelation wrote: post #37

duaneb wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of those, it seems like only TinyOS would qualify (a full userland stack that you can develop from) under the same qualifications that netbsd might qualify.... To be clear, by "true os", I mean a posix runtime, preemptive multitasking with threads and processes, memory protection. Still, cool links (I'll save that TinyOS for later this week), and I like the username.

Most 8 bit micros don't have an MMU, so you can't have memory protection or virtual memory. That's a hardware limitation.