video of me booting linux on an XT

[Mike Chambers]

ok, so it's not "linux" it's ELKS... the Embeddable Linux Kernel Subset :)

but still... thought it was pretty cool. i uploaded it to youtube (hey i've seen more boring videos than this before on there!)

sorry all i have is a webcam, so it's kinda cruddy looking but you can see everything okay.

so without further adu, and as if anybody cares:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=PNILxHJXonw

[grant]

Hmmm... I have a CompuPro 8088 S-100 card. ELKS ported to the Altair would be cool. :)

[chuckcmagee]

I'm seasick after watching that one.

[atari2600a]

No X-Server? lol :p

[Mike Chambers]

Hmmm... I have a CompuPro 8088 S-100 card. ELKS ported to the Altair would be cool. :)

lol.. you know, i think that's actually possible... altairs use an 8080, right? the 8080 is asm-source compatible with an 8086. :)



I'm seasick after watching that one.

yeah, a few dramamines may be required. sorry! :(



No X-Server? lol :p

man, that'd be unuseable! windows 3.0 is even impossible on it...

[mbbrutman]

Except for that pesky little problem about not having enough memory, I'm sure it would work great.

Hell is nice except for the weather and the residents.

[Mike Chambers]

Except for that pesky little problem about not having enough memory, I'm sure it would work great.

Hell is nice except for the weather and the residents.

heh i know. just thought ELKS is an interesting project. perhaps there'd be enough memory to run a little IRC client or something like that. i haven't tried to yet.

[grant]

lol.. you know, i think that's actually possible... altairs use an 8080, right? the 8080 is asm-source compatible with an 8086. :)

Close, too many 80s... The 8085 is downard code compatible with the 8080. The 8088 is basically an 8086, but it has an 8bit bus so its a little slower.

The card actually has an 8085 and an 8088. The idea is that you switch processors using an INPUT to the control port. I don't know if it ever took off.

I've subscribed to the ELKS mailing list and posted the basic idea of the project. What this world needs is an Altair running linux and on top of that, acting as a webserver. :D

[Mike Chambers]

I've subscribed to the ELKS mailing list and posted the basic idea of the project. What this world needs is an Altair running linux and on top of that, acting as a webserver. :D

hahaha. that would be awesome! my 8088 does that slow enough, i don't want to imagine an altair running one.

[grant]

The Altair would have the same 8MHz 8088... :) Did you actually connect to the web server on the 8088? Does ELKS have a telnet server too? FTP?

Sounds like a cool project.

[Erik]

The Altair would have the same 8MHz 8088...

The Altair ran an 8080 at 2 MHz although some folks souped them up to 4 MHz Z80s or even 4-6 MHz 8088s late in life.

[grant]

Thats what I meant. I would have to use my CompuPro 8085/8088 dual processor card to run linux. It only has a 5MHz clock on it, but the manual says the 15MHz crystal can be swapped with a 24MHz to get 8MHz at the 8088.

Howard Harte and I are going to modify his special dual terminated motherboard for the Altair. It has been tested to run well at up to 12MHz!

Howard is also the proud owner of a new Altair kit. :) He has done so much for the S-100 community!

[Starshadow]

man, that'd be unuseable! windows 3.0 is even impossible on it...

I've run Windows 3.0 on XTs with 640k before. Its a little slow, but not too bad.

[Mike Chambers]

I've run Windows 3.0 on XTs with 640k before. Its a little slow, but not too bad.

it works ok, but with only 640 KB you can't run anything too useful.