It’s not unusual for a brand new distro model to come back out, and a grudging admission that possibly a quicker laptop computer is on the playing cards. Maybe after seeing this undertaking although, you’ll by no means once more complain about that two-generations-ago 64-bit multi-core behemoth, as a result of [Dimitri Grinberg] — who else! — has succeeded in booting an up-to-date Linux on the actual most simple of processors. We’re not speaking about 386s, ATmegas, or 6502s, as an alternative he’s gone proper again to the start. The Intel 4004 was the primary commercially obtainable microprocessor again in 1971, and now it can run Linux.
So, given the 4004’s very restricted structure and 4-bit bus, how can it carry out this unattainable feat? As you may count on, the kernel isn’t being compiled to run natively on such historical {hardware}. As a substitute he’s achieved the equally impossible-sounding process of writing a MIPS emulator for the venerable silicon, and paring again the emulated {hardware} to the extent that it stays succesful given the constraints of the Seventies help chips in interfacing to the newer elements comparable to RAM for the MIPS, an SD card, and a VFD show. The result’s proven within the video under the break, and regardless that it’s sped up it’s clear that this isn’t a fast machine by any means.
We’d advocate the article as an excellent learn even in case you’ll by no means put Linux on a 4004, due to its detailed description of the structure. In the meantime we’ve had just a few 4004 tales through the years, and this one’s not even the first time we’ve seen it emulate something else.
