[HN Gopher] FreeBSD on the Vortex86DX CPU
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FreeBSD on the Vortex86DX CPU
Author : fcambus
Score : 46 points
Date : 2022-03-15 09:28 UTC (13 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.cambus.net)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.cambus.net)
| Gys wrote:
| > the EBOX 3300A-H, with a 1GHz CPU and 256MB of RAM
| timw4mail wrote:
| The Vortex86 series is the little-known x86 survivor...the only
| real non-Intel or AMD x86 chip with roots back in the Socket 7
| days.
|
| Centaur, with their Winchip design, and Cyrix both got bought by
| VIA. VIA did have a good run, but their custom CPU designs kind
| of fizzled out before they re-sold Centaur to Intel.
|
| As far as I am aware, Vortex86 CPUs are still in production,
| unlike VIA's.
| 0xcde4c3db wrote:
| > As far as I am aware, Vortex86 CPUs are still in production,
| unlike VIA's.
|
| Did VIA CPUs actually stop production at some point? As far as
| I know, they were restricted to shipping on a shrinking lineup
| of VIA's own boards, and then licensed to Zhaoxin to support
| requirements of certain organizations in China to deploy PCs
| using domestic chips.
| timw4mail wrote:
| If there is ongoing production, the supply is miniscule. At
| the very least, VIA no longer has a CPU design team.
|
| Zhaoxin chips do have the "CentaurHauls" vendor string, but I
| think they are different enough to not be "VIA" chips.
| deadbeeves wrote:
| I still don't get what people use these devices for.
| bayindirh wrote:
| They're small, unobtrusive, silent, low power, useful and fun.
|
| I use a OrangePi Zero with 512MB of RAM [0] as a local DNS,
| webserver, torrent client and download box. It provides
| hostnames for devices at home, downloads my LibreOffice and
| Linux images, allows me to test small static webpages in a
| package no bigger than a literal match box.
|
| It runs Debian based Armbian and is rock solid after updating
| it to Debian 11. It makes my life easier and helps me learn
| working with constrained systems which allows me to be better
| at my day job.
|
| [0]: http://www.orangepi.org/orangepizero/
| throwaway2048 wrote:
| OrangePi zero has nothing to do with Vortex86
| bayindirh wrote:
| They're equally constrained systems, even if they are not
| used for exactly same things.
|
| I care for the constrained resources and the form factor.
| CPU architecture is just a secondary item in my list.
| fmakunbound wrote:
| Industrial control systems
| voxadam wrote:
| Vortex86 SoCs were once quite commonly found on embedded boards
| used in industrial automation. Outside of that I'm willing to
| bet you'd find them in semi-embedded applications like point-
| of-sale devices.
| sgerenser wrote:
| A previous company I worked at used a Vortex86DX embedded
| board as a replacement for an older Pentium/Celeron board
| that went EOL. It was one of the last x86 CPUs made that
| still supported the ISA bus that the product used to talk to
| custom hardware.
| jasoneckert wrote:
| I'm always shocked how many legacy hardware/systems are
| still in widespread use. Companies such as DM&P that
| produce the Vortex86 likely have a nice solid revenue
| stream and will for decades.
| [deleted]
| marcodiego wrote:
| Considering Vortex86 is still currently produced, are x86
| compatible and free from IME and PSP, could they qualify as
| modern processors for fsf's ryf certification?
| sparcpile wrote:
| TheRasteri on had a set of Youtube videos where we created a
| DOS/Windows 98 gaming PC using the Vortex86DX and when through a
| set of benchmarks and comparisons. The retro enthusiast community
| started about the WeeCee that he created.
|
| https://youtu.be/6cXdWMOl8QE?t=45
|
| Edit to change the YouTube video start time to where the
| TheRasteri gets into the details of the Vortex86 history and
| benchmarking.
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