Early mp3 decoders depended on floating point. Using modern fixed point code will let you run on less capable hardware.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WinPlay3 was released in 1995 and requires "only" a 66MHz 486, available in 1992.
I compiled it on an SGI Indigo running at 30Mhz and it would play up to 256kbps files using 90 percent of CPU.
But this program called "amp"... I'm very curious to see if it could be compiled to run on a recent machine.
I agree with you, but 30Mhz! That is a very low clock for 256kbps decode.
MIPS did very significantly outperform Intel at that time.
http://www.mp3-tech.org/programmer/sources/amp-0_7_6.tgz
Found it.
An Indigo sat in the office for a time playing tunes from an NFS share we would populate. I eventually took it home to do the same thing. I forget how I parted ways with that old box.
I am not inclined to build it at the moment, though it may well make for a great micro controller project one day.
Edit: Fixed: add "frequency = frequency/2;" after the comment /* Set the output frequency */ in file audioIO_Linux.c
Does it still hold up?
Maybe I will build it just for grins myself. Thanks for the tips.
But yes, it uses very little cpu. Maybe less than dosamp.
Maybe I will play your track after the family activities. Edit: Except access denied, lol. No worries.