Linux boots in 4,76 days on Intel 4004 | Hacker News Reader

Linux boots in 4,76 days on Intel 4004

arstechnica.com

59 pointselectroagenda15 comments

> If you're skeptical that this feat is possible with a raw 4004, you're right: The 4004 itself is far too limited to run Linux directly. Instead, Grinberg created a solution that is equally impressive: an emulator that runs on the 4004 and emulates a MIPS R3000 processor—the architecture used in the DECstation 2100 workstation that Linux was originally ported to. This emulator, along with minimal hardware emulation, allows a stripped-down Debian Linux to boot to a command prompt.

That's cool

...and also a lot more practical than writing a C compiler that can compile the Linux kernel (not to mention other tools that you might need) for the 4004.

However, one major issue with this (aside from the slow slow speed) is the limited RAM - I assume this requires lots of swapping from the SD card to work?

[dupe]

Actual article and submission from the dev: https://dmitry.gr/?r=05.Projects&proj=35.%20Linux4004

(https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41600756)

I mistakenly think the guy took over a year to boot Linux/4004 due to the comma in the post title.

(I was aware that comma represents decimal point in some regions, just didn't get this in the first place.)

Also the comma would be after 3 digits, no?

Like 1,000 and 100?

Truly. But at first sight I couldn't parse the comma as anything else except a delimiter :(

Check out what they do in India[a]. It's not beyond the realm of possibility to misremember it exactly.

a: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thousands_separator#Examples_o...

Yes, in India we use 3 places for the first and then 2 places for the rest. But comma was never a thing. Fun fact: In India we use upto Crore as mentioned in the link, but recently had to learn upto Lakh Crore as the politicians looted bigger recently and went beyond normal. :)

Commas are used for the decimal point instead of the period character in many countries, including many European countries.

We do, but most of software engineers out there hate it and use the dot, for obvious reasons (CSV in particular).

Having said that, I like our Swiss decimal group delimiter: 1'000'000.

I'm from one of those European countries and still also read it as it taking over a year to boot...

Unless the title is internationalised somehow (possible, but I doubt it), it's "4.76" in the original article. That's what happens when submitters editorialise ;-)

Linux/4004: booting Linux on Intel 4004 for fun, art, and no profit | 159 comments | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41600756

Let's try again on 03:14:07 UTC 19 January 2038...

Somewhere in the US Midwest, Jeff Geerling suddenly decides "nah, I don't wanna recompile the kernel."

Reply on news.ycombinator.com