alt Hacker NewsA 386 PC for Your RP2350
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It's really cool what can be done today with just an MCU that has sufficiently flexible IO. What's the performance like?
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.
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?
I love it! The RP2350 is probably the most underrated microcontroller available today.
In case anyone missed it earlier on HN, there is a similar project that runs on an ESP32: https://github.com/hchunhui/tiny386
What a long way to have come from the beige towers!
I had Slackware CDs in the nineties! They had a minimalist label and came with no jewel case (rubber band if I recall correctly).
I've been meaning to rediscover the CICA and Simtel collections. Maybe that's what I needed!
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.
Does it emulate RS232 ports and printer ports as well ? I did'nt find anything. Then it would be possible to reuse old embedded equipment.
Was the performance mentioned anywhere - I couldn't find it on the page?
Technically you could run OS/2 on it, I think.
Or Plan9 for i386.
Really cool, wondering if it can be ported to the PicoCalc.
Time to dig up 386bsd
yes, but those screenshots are EGA
nice job
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?