Re: Exposed serial connection

[John Adams <jna-dated-1032636283.eef453 () retina net>]

On Mon, 16 Sep 2002, m p wrote:

> Eum, that is not possible ... if you can build a MMU yourself and write the
> Linux driver for it, it might be possible :)

Sometimes I'm suprised at how reliant people have become on modern 
hardware and how little effort people put into reusing older hardware for 
modern problems. 

> The x86 processors became interesting for *nix from the i80386 onward.
> From that time on there was an MMU (Memory Managment Unit) and other
> goodies (like 4 GB of memory you can address). But before you had to
> build some ICs yourself (like HP and others did) to run something like
> *nix on it.

While I agree with you that the 386 and 486 would make better standalone 
systems for this sort of task, keep in mind that there are plenty of old 
routers (Cisco's 26xx series is all 68000 based) and serial boxes (Shiva = 
68000) and novell systems still running on older x86 processors. 

You will, however, have better luck using more recent hardware because the 
availability of spare parts is greater, and if the application is mission 
critical, why use aging junk? 
 
> A 386 is perhaps possible - but do get a "feeling" like on a actual machine in
> text mode, it have to be a 486 (from my experience with crypto on old
> hardware).

Anything's possible if you have enough time and patience. These are the 
ways of the hacker. ;)

--john


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