Could be build an IBM PC 286 like PC with AVR MCU

Community Bar Sport
1

In some unrelated thread we started a discussion with @TheMemberFormerlyKnownAsAWOL about computing power comparison of an Intel 286 and AVR MCUs.

I started it with "this 8-bit MCUs can do more then PC CPUs could do around 1990".

There are projects on Internet where people build a computer with AVR MCU. I didn't find a full PC project, but every project has something. Some use external RAM, some use additional MCU for VGA, some use the ATmega 1284p (16kB SRAM). There is an IDE hard drive project etc.

http://humaneinfo.com/pc.html

Of course there is no alphanumeric word processor or spreadsheet ready for AVR, but I think it could be programmed with functions available in common office application for a 1990 286 PC.

this is Bar Sport. I don't intend to build it :slight_smile:

2

It's been too many decades, but I believe all the Intel processors had separate memory and i-o addresses. Perhaps 256 i-o addresses. Do the AVR processors do this? I have not looked. The Intel processors all had vectored interrupts, as well.

Paul

3

I know hobbyists built personal computers with Z80 chips (and similar) when there was nothing else available.

But I can't recall that hobbyists built PC's with 80286 chips - hadn't it become big business by then?

...R

4

Robin2:
I know hobbyists built personal computers with Z80 chips (and similar) when there was nothing else available.

But I can't recall that hobbyists built PC's with 80286 chips - hadn't it become big business by then?

...R

Yup! BIG business by then. IBM and others building personal computers. I was referring to programming them.
Paul

5

There's a number of projects using AVR to emulate ARM, one going so far as to boot Linux, so a 286 should be a (slow) doddle.

Hackaday?

6

a little later I realized that the 80286 was a 16 bit CPU.