What does HackerNews think of ao486?

The ao486 is an x86 compatible Verilog core implementing all features of a 486 SX.

Language: C

Ao486_MiSTer: i486 core for the MiSTer FPGA gaming system | Mar 2023

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That's what the project they pulled this from (ao486) says:

"The ao486 is an x86 compatible Verilog core implementing all features of a 486 SX"

https://github.com/alfikpl/ao486

Linus Torvalds suggests the 80486 architecture belongs in museum not the kernel | Oct 2022

One interesting 486 "machine" is the ao486:

https://opencores.org/projects/ao486 https://github.com/alfikpl/ao486

I believe it is the highest version, completely open FPGA of the x86 architecture. This may be some kind of argument for maintaining Linux support?

An S-100 80486 CPU Board | Mar 2021

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There's a 486 open core under a BSD-ish license: https://github.com/alfikpl/ao486 I have this on an FPGA and it can run DOOM albeit a bit slowly.

ARM releases free Cortex-M processor cores for FPGAs | Oct 2018

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There's ao486 already [1] [2]. I seem to recall that there are a few corners where it's not 100% complete/compatible, but it's complete enough to boot Windows 95 and Linux (assuming a Linux distro with 486 support, now an endangered species), and run some classic DOS games/demos. It doesn't run at a speed equivalent to a "real" 486, at least on a cheap FPGA.

[1] https://github.com/alfikpl/ao486

[2] https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2QcW6r3MlDThUnC8cA-r...