It’s funny but it’s not true
Plot twist: it’s actually a whole SoC packaged to look like a single transistor, with the pins being for +V, ground, and a 1-Wire data bus.
I don’t know that such a thing exists, but these days I bet it could.
But could it run doom?!
Linux requires at least 32 bit machine words, and it always has. Linux was originally written for Intel 80386.
Linux requires a hardware MMU to support virtual memory. There are patches that can make a no-MMU kernel, but it drastically changes the experience to do so.
Well it is kinda cheating but Linux does “run” on a intel 4004 running a MIPS emulator
I think you could cook something like a 4-bit turing complete computer with around 100 transistors or so. And i guess turing completeness basically means “it will run with enough elbow grease” in this case
(if we exclude memory from the transistor count…)
Requirements are one resistor. Gold band for optimal performance.
I code by laying out gravel patterns for crickets to run through.
This made me look up if you could somehow run it on vacuum tubes, sadly not
9 day boot time on a 4004!
OMG!
I booted Debian Linux on a 4-bit intel microprocessor from 1971 - the first microprocessor in the world - the 4004. It is not fast, but it is a real Linux kernel with a Debian rootfs on a real board whose only CPU is a real intel 4004 from the 1970s. The video is sped up at variable rates to demonstrate this without boring you. The clock and calendar in the video are accurate. A constant-rate video is linked below.
omg that was a hilarious read. painful, but insightful.
He eventually got it down to under 5 days!
Of course you can run it on tubes, in principal, since they do the same as transistors at the end of the day
I guess I more wondered if some madlad had actually done it
Someone has done this with relays so I don’t blame you for asking.
I know a guy who got Linux running on a diode.
(Optional)
look at you with your fancy semiconductor, all i need are some rocks in a desert
Don’t get it twisted
Damn I hate when they increase the minimum requirements
This thing runs arch by the way.
You can also wait for quantum fluctuations to randomly compute your thing…
Install directly into the base of the brainstem
Every time I woke up would be like
GRUB RESCUE> _
Does not compute. A Turing machine (with limited tape so it can be built for real) does though, whether transistorized or not.
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