A programmer with a passion for old computer hardware got his hands on a processor dating from the 1970s. He mounted it in a machine running Linux: the result is worth a look!
In 1971, Intel released the 4004. First, the microprocessor was offered exclusively to Busicom, the company that sponsored it. But six months later in November of the same year, the Intel 4004 was released.
With a maximum frequency of 740 kHz, the Intel 4004 inevitably pales in comparison to today’s CPUs. But at the time, it was a real concentrate of power in a very small size: its power was comparable to the ENIAC, the first modern computer presented in 1946, which weighed 30 tonnes and occupied a space of 167 m².
Dmitry Grinberg, a developer keen on old-fashioned computer hardware, set out toinstall the Debian Linux distribution on an Intel 4004 microprocessor “for pleasure, art, and absolutely not profit”. He recounts his incredible experience on his blog.
Months of work for very slow results
To successfully bridge the gap between hardware and software — Linux having appeared 20 years later, in 1991 — Dmitry Grinberg sought to emulate the higher performance MIPS R3000 processor capable of supporting the C compiler. He spent a huge amount of time optimizing everything, especially the speed of order execution.
Because if, currently, it takes 4.76 days for the machine to start, at the start of the experiment, it took 8.4. This gives an idea of the optimization achieved. Despite this, each action takes hours: 16 hours to type and run a command displaying the Linux kernel version, and 16 more to list six files in a directory. The video posted by Grinberg is sped up, but it still seems very long.
An “artistic” work, but not only that
Dmitry Grinberg describes his approach as “artistic» and it’s true that she is, in her own way. But it also demonstrates to what extent Linux can be installed on anything and everything. The personalized electronic card that embeds the Intel 4004 has been designed to be exhibited : it would not be surprising if it were, one day, presented in a museum. It remains to be seen what type!
As for the curious who would like to reproduce the experience, Grinberg offers on his blog all the elements that allow you to design a similar “computer” at homeprovided you have sufficient equipment and knowledge. And above all, plenty of time: the opportunity to remember how patience is a virtue. We are now waiting to see what Doom would do on such a bike.
