Anyone know about running Linux/Unix or any *nix operating systems on a ti 84+ calculator? Any other OS besides the stock one would be nice.
I don't know about the possibilities but I would imagine it'd be nigh impossible. The clock speed is only ~15MHz plus you have ~1MB of memory. I'm not saying it can't be done but it wouldn't really feel like Linux in my opinion.
Those types of OSes also tend to make extensive use of things like memory protection and MMUs, neither of which the Z80 processor has.
Getting Linux to run in 15MHz, sure. Getting it to run in 128KB of RAM (being generous with the model), you might barely get the kernel loaded if you use a basic uclinux kernel. Lacking an MMU? That is a big problem.

If you turn your attention to the m68k calcs, then punix might be worth looking at.
No way to run Linux directly on a Z80, indeed. A guy once wrote an ARM emulator for AVR, and successfully booted Linux + minimal userspace - but while it's a noteworthy technical prowess, it's cheating around the fact that a platform cannot run Linux on its own Smile

Given enough RAM, a 68k can however run Linux, either the mmu version (68020 onwards) or the nommu version (68000). Using the XIP feature to execute the kernel from NOR Flash, assuming XIP is supported on the 68k series, would reduce RAM consumption. However, the TI-68k series only has 256 KB of RAM, so I'm not convinced Linux would be able to run with so little RAM...
Since part of the original poster's question was about any sort of third-party operating system, and AHelper didn't bring it up, I think it's worth mentioning GlassOS, a third-party operating system for the TI-84 Plus calculators written almost entirely in C. While it's not complete, it does have a lot of cool features, is open-source, and provides a good toolchain for writing your own C programs.
  
Register to Join the Conversation
Have your own thoughts to add to this or any other topic? Want to ask a question, offer a suggestion, share your own programs and projects, upload a file to the file archives, get help with calculator and computer programming, or simply chat with like-minded coders and tech and calculator enthusiasts via the site-wide AJAX SAX widget? Registration for a free Cemetech account only takes a minute.

» Go to Registration page
Page 1 of 1
» All times are UTC - 5 Hours
 
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum

 

Advertisement