Linux on a nec v-30??

[pengyou]

I have a chance to buy a subnotebook monochrome computer that has an nec v-30 chip. I believe that the nec v-30 is something between the 8086 and the 80286. Is it possible to install Linux on this? If so, what distro would you recommend? More important question...does this cpu have enough balls to power a pcmcia gprs card so that I can do mobile surfing?

Thanks!

Tom

[drakebasher]

NEC V30 is a 16-bit CMOS microprocessor, object-code compatible and pin-compatible with Intel 8086. The V30 runs at the same speed as the 8086, but it's 10% - 30% faster (depending on application) due to internal improvements - dual internal 16-bit data bus, faster effective address calculation, faster integer multiplication and some others. The V30 includes Intel 8080 emulation mode, in which it can execute all of the 8080 instructions. Native V30 instruction set includes all 8086/8088 instructions, new instructions from the 80186/80188 microprocessor, and instructions unique to V30 - bit processing, packed BCD instructions and special instructions for switching the processor to 8080 emulation mode and back.

Linux was built to run on 386 systems and I don't think it will work at all, any version, any configuration on anything like NEC V30. Read this recent thread for some insight. Of course, if you want to hack the kernel for that platform, who knows what opportunities you might create?

[Dolda2000]

The uCLinux kernel may, with some serious luck, run on that hardware. You might as well check it out. The reason is that ordinarily, the Linux kernel needs a PMMU, which was introduced in the x86 line only in the 80386. uCLinux is a Linux kernel that doesn't require a PMMU. However they've managed to do that is beyond me, and it most likely won't support mmap()'ing, shared libraries and such stuff, but it does undeniably exist.