This project is "only" a cool ARM emulator with
software DRAM controller, which BTW proves again that
Linux doesn't fit onto 8-bit micros.
But it does, for practical purposes. I'll try to put into context with a practical story -
There's a global apocalypse happening tomorrow.
There's a sealed bunker beneath my author's house that will survive. It contains one of these microcontrollers, a keyboard, specifications for a daisy wheel printer that hooks into the debug port and a big stack of paper, and a row of bicycles connected to a alternator to power it all.
There is a post-it note stuck to the controller that says "pwd; /usr/bin/ls; cd /; /usr/bin/ls; man man; man ls; man ed;".
Decades from now and by chance, Benedictine monks will build a monastery, and the bunker will be within its generous grounds. In time they will discover the bunker, and take turns getting fit while others they learn to use the system. They're a disciplined, careful bunch, particularly around commands like rm.
Out of concern for the reliability of storage media, one of the hackers will set up a RAM disk and migrate the system over to this. The abbot will declare that pedalling is a leisure activity so that they system will never again need to reboot.
Though their diligence, the art of unix hacking will live on.
A thousand years later, an opaque glass bottle will break free of the ocean, and wash up on a beach. Bizarrely, it will contain well-preserved code printouts from an entry in the 2013 7-day roguelike competition. It will be marked up in pen, to highlight the author's flamboyant use of obscure system calls, particularly those that are specific to the linux kernel. A convenient novelty of the game is that (unlike rogue) it is one-dimensional - a player can walk left or right on a line, and a new line prints out each time they move.
A copy of the source will eventually find its way to the monks - still pedaling furiously to keep their RAM disk alive - as they take an interest in anything that refers to linux. They will type in the code, and then throw it at a compiler. It will all work. This is the last computer left on the planet, and the reason that the code can be compiled to run on the computer with no modifications is because - for practical purposes - it's linux that's running on this 8-bit micro.
Comments
I was impressed by it.
But it does, for practical purposes. I'll try to put into context with a practical story -There's a global apocalypse happening tomorrow.
There's a sealed bunker beneath my author's house that will survive. It contains one of these microcontrollers, a keyboard, specifications for a daisy wheel printer that hooks into the debug port and a big stack of paper, and a row of bicycles connected to a alternator to power it all.
There is a post-it note stuck to the controller that says "pwd; /usr/bin/ls; cd /; /usr/bin/ls; man man; man ls; man ed;".
Decades from now and by chance, Benedictine monks will build a monastery, and the bunker will be within its generous grounds. In time they will discover the bunker, and take turns getting fit while others they learn to use the system. They're a disciplined, careful bunch, particularly around commands like rm.
Out of concern for the reliability of storage media, one of the hackers will set up a RAM disk and migrate the system over to this. The abbot will declare that pedalling is a leisure activity so that they system will never again need to reboot.
Though their diligence, the art of unix hacking will live on.
A thousand years later, an opaque glass bottle will break free of the ocean, and wash up on a beach. Bizarrely, it will contain well-preserved code printouts from an entry in the 2013 7-day roguelike competition. It will be marked up in pen, to highlight the author's flamboyant use of obscure system calls, particularly those that are specific to the linux kernel. A convenient novelty of the game is that (unlike rogue) it is one-dimensional - a player can walk left or right on a line, and a new line prints out each time they move.
A copy of the source will eventually find its way to the monks - still pedaling furiously to keep their RAM disk alive - as they take an interest in anything that refers to linux. They will type in the code, and then throw it at a compiler. It will all work. This is the last computer left on the planet, and the reason that the code can be compiled to run on the computer with no modifications is because - for practical purposes - it's linux that's running on this 8-bit micro.
I think in the event of a global apocalypse you'll be wanting this gentleman[1] first... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzyXMEpq4qw
[1] Claude Paillard, http://paillard.claude.free.fr/