Developer Ports X86-Linux to the Nintendo NES

A resourceful developer has managed to get an emulator for former PC hardware on the hardware of a Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) from 1989. This means that a stripped down version of Linux can now be started on the ancient console.

8086 emulator for the NES makes it possible

A inventor with the user name Decrazyo has with NES86 A new project presented in which he tries to emulate an early PC on the NES of Nintendo. The developer tries to emulate an Intel 8086 processor together with some basic parts of the hardware required for an X86 PC on the NES, which means that a greatly reduced Linux kernel should now be possible.

Basically, Decrazyo brings an embedded kernel from Linux (Embeddable Linux Kernel Subset, Elks) to run on the NES during his experiment, whereby some effort has to be operated. Because the NES has significantly less storage and addressable storage space, memory mapping techniques must be used in order to emulate the 8086 chip.

Specifically, the developer emulates an IBM PC 5150 with NES86, which was the very first X86-based PC when it was introduced in 1981 and founded the success of all subsequent systems with such CPUs. Even this first commercial displaced PC already had a significantly faster CPU with 4.77 Megahertz than the NES with 1.79 megahertz. The ELKS project To do this, provide the right software in the form of a Linux operating system for 16-bit processors from Intel, such as those used in the IBM 5150 PC and other later models until Intel 386 contained the first 32-bit CPUs.

However, even Elks needs at least 256 kilobytes of RAM and will therefore never be able to run natively on the CPU of the NES. If you want to try NES86 yourself, you can use a NES emulator for the PC or other platforms. Compatible emulators include FCEUX, Mesen2, Rustico and the Everdrive N8 Pro-Cartridge equipped with an FPGA chip. In a detailed YouTube video (see above), the developer explains his approach.