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Contiki Ported To x86

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the reuse-is-recycling dept.

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."

6 of 243 comments (clear)

  1. Specs, just in case by Cali+Thalen · · Score: 4, Informative
    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
    --
    Chaos, panic, disorder...my work here is done.
  2. Not the first.. by iantri · · Score: 5, Informative
    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 ;)...

  3. Re:Pre-emptive multitasking? by david.given · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.

  4. If you want something more useful by edwdig · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.

  5. Java port to C64!! by henriksh · · Score: 4, Informative
    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!
  6. Re:Am I the only one by AT · · Score: 4, Informative

    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 :)