6 ms·
Almost everything has at least an 8-bit MCU now. 32-bit MCUs are also extremely common now, and even simple ones like the ARM Cortex-M0 are competitive with a 2
by exged 6y ago
Almost everything has at least an 8-bit MCU now. 32-bit MCUs are also extremely common now, and even simple ones like the ARM Cortex-M0 are competitive with a 286/386 (albeit with less memory / no MMU).
A rather surprising number of devices run very powerful application processors. An amusing example is Apple's Lightning to HDMI adapter, which has an ARM SoC with 256MB of RAM and boots a Darwin kernel in order to decode a H.264 compressed video protocol. Depending on what exactly they put into it (wouldn't be surprised if they borrowed the Apple TV chip for a relatively low-volume product like this) it may be more powerful than a fairly recent computer.
- pabs3 6y agoHas anyone tried to run Linux on that Apple adapter?
- sunpazed 6y agoObligatory “can it run DOOM?”
- sunpazed 6y agoLooks like this dev has patched the HW and has shell access https://twitter.com/nyan_satan/status/1322329047779713024?s=20 https://twitter.com/nyan_satan/status/1322329047779713024?s=...
- buildbot 6y agoThat’s delightful! Anyone want to buy a few and make the first cluster of HDMI adapters?
- reaperducer 6y agoObligatory “can it run DOOM?” Imagine a beowulf cluster of them.
- daniellarusso 6y agoThe first time I saw that adapter and realized it was basically an external video card, not a pin breakout, very eye-opening.