Evidently bored with smooth running graphics, lightning fast processing and bags and bags of accessible memory, programmer Dmitry Grinberg decided to return to computing basics. After which some. As Linux was developed on a 32-bit machine with 1MB of RAM, this has always been considered the minimum system requirements to run the open source OS. Dmitry, however, put this theory to check, building a barebones set-up with just an 8-bit RISC microcontroller at its heart. Running at a somewhat sedentary 6.5KHz, with only 16KB of SRAM and 128KB of flash storage, these are specs that make most phones appear like supercomputers. To get things working, Dmitry needed to write an ARM emulator in order that the system appeared as having a 32-bit processor with an MMU, and it seems like a 30-pin 16MB SIMM was added, plus as SD card to deal with the Ubuntu image. Despite all this, he was in a position to load Ubuntu successfully. Sure, it took four hours, and that's the reason after two hours awaiting the bash command prompt, but hey. Grinberg claims that the system continues to be useable, with the command line typically responding "within a minute." So Dmitri, in case you are reading this at the machine, happy new year! Check the time-lapse video after the break to peer it in full, patience testing, action.
From WhatNewsToday.net
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