Contiki Ported To x86

lt writes "The ultra-small Contiki OS has now been ported to the x86. This should give those of you who have an old x86 PC that is too small to run even the smallest of Linux variants, a chance to browse the web, set up a web server, and doing other essential stuff. If you're curious to see how it looks, there is a live VNC demo running."

Comments

As it will be slashdotted...

[Anonymous Coward]

Some info before it gets toasted

The web pages you are watching are served by a web server running under the Contiki operating system on an an Ethernut embedded Ethernet board, which consists of a 14 MHz AVR Atmega128 microcontroller with 32 kilobytes of RAM and 128 kilobytes of flash ROM, and a RealTek RTL8019AS Ethernet chip.

Local Remote State Retransmissions Timer Flags 80 210.214.211.245:1166 FIN-WAIT-2 0 91 80 210.49.61.249:4000 ESTABLISHED 0 3 80 216.15.124.126:61657 FIN-WAIT-2 0 25 80 209.210.4.252:54730 ESTABLISHED 0 1 * 80 200.164.245.202:33548 ESTABLISHED 0 3 * 80 216.15.124.126:61654 FIN-WAIT-2 0 21 80 217.72.69.144:1077 SYN-RCVD 0 3 * 80 208.191.17.177:1937 ESTABLISHED 0 3 * 80 172.137.24.29:3071 SYN-RCVD 6 43 * 80 208.19.133.132:38209 ESTABLISHED 0 1 * 80 192.35.35.35:35197 ESTABLISHED 0 3 * 80 66.32.100.20:57348 ESTABLISHED 0 1 * 80 160.36.251.198:56226 FIN-WAIT-2 0 4 80 160.36.251.198:56225 ESTABLISHED 0 3 * 80 160.39.180.236:53790 FIN-WAIT-2 0 36 5900 67.82.242.97:27960 ESTABLISHED 0 3 * 80 200.164.245.202:33549 ESTABLISHED 0 2 *

Specs, just in case

[Cali Thalen]

The web pages you are watching are served by a web server running under the Contiki operating system on an an Ethernut embedded Ethernet board, which consists of a 14 MHz AVR Atmega128 microcontroller with 32 kilobytes of RAM and 128 kilobytes of flash ROM, and a RealTek RTL8019AS Ethernet chip.

I'll be seriously impressed if this thing survives the morning

A Post-Modern Cool Idea

[rwiedower]

Here's a link to a screenshot of an old /. entry about said OS. It would've been cool if the "live" VNC shot was of this slashdot discussion, eh?

Re:VNC

[usotsuki]

8086 is 16-bit ;)

Interestingly enough I (in the past week) have thought about implementing Contiki on top of CP/M-86 4. CP/M-86 4 is a rather small OS, and can optionally run DOS programs (the infamous DOSPLUS), and I think, with tools I can easily find for free, I can code low-level stuff for it.

It can be done. IWBN, too.

-uso.

Pre-emptive multitasking?

[Daniel Phillips]

From the FAQ:

Does Contiki support pre-emptive multitasking?

No, Contiki does cooperative multitasking. The reason for not supporting pre-emptive multitasking is that it would unnecessarily increase the complexity not only of the operating system, but also of the applications that would run under it. Pre-emptive multitasking is primarily useful in general purpose multiuser operating systems such as *nix, or in real-time systems where response time is critial. Contiki does not fit in either of those categories.

Hah, apparently this didn't stop the Geoworks people from pulling off a fully preemptive OS on the lowly 8088.

Re:Pre-emptive multitasking?

[david.given]

Also, preemption on some processors is an incredible pain: for example, the 6502 has a single, fixed address, 256-byte stack. In order to preempt a process on the 6502 you'd have to manually copy the entire stack somewhere else in memory, and copy another process' stack in. Not pleasant.

Re:Wow!

[Urkki]

Linux should run pretty well on that too, even with X if you have enough memory.

Not the first..

[iantri]

These people were long beaten.. you can run a server on an XT with EZNOS (it also acts as an LPD print server!) or one of serveral other packages..

http://www.eznos.org

Here's an XT running EZNOS.. there's also other 8088/87 projects, a 386 and other stuff.. neat.

Also, a web server running on the original IBM PC.

I've been wating to get these people slashdotted ;)...

If you want something more useful

[edwdig]

If you'd like to do something more useful with an older system, check out GEOS. It's currently being maintained by Breadbox, who has a demo available for download. Full preemptive multitasking. Comes with a web browser (HTML 4.0, no CSS or JS), email (POP3), AIM, FTP, News Reader, and a roughly MS Works level office suite. More software is available from it at Tva Katter.

Older versions would run on an 8086 (one of the original design goals was that the WYSIWYG word processor could keep up with your typing on an 8086). The current version requires a 386. 2 megs of RAM should be fine for most things (even 1 will work ok), although you'd probably want at least 4 or 8 megs for browsing the web.

Java port to C64!!

[henriksh]

Ok, this seriously made my day! From the Contiki web site:

[...]it should be noted that Brian Bagnall actually is working on porting/implementing a Java virtual machine for the C64.

A Java implementation on the C64??! I'm speechless!

Re:No wonder

[-brazil-]

Nope, "US billion" was meant to clarify that it's 10^9; in other countries 1 billion = 10^12.

Re:Am I the only one

[AT]

Since it runs on an 8088, it must use the x86 "real" mode, instead of protected mode. Which means that only 1MB of memory is addressable, so the gig of RAM is irrelevent. Contiki would only use the first 1MB.

I'm sure it would be plenty fast at 3ghz though :)

It's still alive!

[Steeltoe]

It's still running. I didn't download their client since I have both TightVNC and ordinary VNC from before. And it worked!! I just had to reconnect after one failed attempt.

These guys know what they're doing. Impressive indeed!! I got to change Window, and delete some text, then go to the addressbar and delete some more and trying to write in an address. But there were 7 other people connected too, doing other things. If I were alone, I bet I could've used the machine just fine.

Come to think of it, I still got my old dusty C64.. Maybe it's time to revive it ;-)