Re: Old platforms: bring out your dead

From: Andy Shevchenko
Date: Wed Jan 13 2021 - 07:23:10 EST


On Wed, Jan 13, 2021 at 2:17 PM Andy Shevchenko
<andy.shevchenko@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> On Wed, Jan 13, 2021 at 2:02 PM Linus Walleij <linus.walleij@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >
> > On Wed, Jan 13, 2021 at 11:27 AM Andy Shevchenko
> > <andy.shevchenko@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > > On Mon, Jan 11, 2021 at 11:55 AM David Laight <David.Laight@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >
> > > > basically 486 but have a few extra instructions - probably just cpuid
> > > > and (IIRC) rdtsc.
> > > > Designed for low power embedded use they won't ever have been suitable
> > > > for a desktop - but are probably fast enough for some uses.
> > > > I'm not sure how much keeping 486 support actually costs, 386 was a
> > > > PITA - but the 486 fixed most of those issues.
> > >
> > > Right, we have "last of mohicans" (to date) Intel Quark family of CPUs
> > > (486 core + few i586 features).
> > > This is for the embedded world and probably not for powerful use.
> >
> > What is the status of PC/104?
>
> Personally I have no idea, but...
>
> > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PC/104
>
> ...from this we learn about PC/104 consortium on site of which we may
> learn about new products:
> https://pc104.org/products/vcs-1-pc-104-system-for-precision-robotics-applications/

It's ARM based for which Wiki says:

"Non-x86 PC/104 CPU boards based on ARM or PowerPC are also
commercially available. However, such boards are not capable of
running off-the-shelf PC software. In these cases, a Board Support
Package is usually provided by the manufacturer for the supported
operating system(s)."

WRT x86 I run the search
https://pc104.org/product-search-results/?kw=x86&post_tag=&product_type=&specifications=&pc-bus-technology=&user=Filter+by+Member+Company
seems like all of them are based on Vortex86DX.

> One and a half years ago, not dead to me.

--
With Best Regards,
Andy Shevchenko