Javascript PC Emulator – Linux in a browser

Pt 101041

Javascript PC Emulator – Linux in a browser…

This PC emulator is written in Javascript. The emulated hardware consists in:
• a 32 bit x86 compatible CPU
• a 8259 Programmble Interrupt Controller
• a 8254 Programmble Interrupt Timer
• a 16450 UART.

The code is written in pure Javascript using Typed Arrays which are available in recent browsers. It was tested with Firefox 4 and Google Chrome 11 on Linux, Window and Mac (it does not work with Chrome 12 beta. As far as I know, it is a bug in the browser). In any case, a fast Javascript engine is needed to have good performance.

Tech notes here.

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2 Comments

  1. MOB_i_L on Twitter
    May 18, 2011 at 2:55 pm

    JS/Linux not GPL but Linux is GPL. Could this not be at least a partial GPL violation, since its Linux might have been modified to run on the emulator.

  2. Bruce
    May 18, 2011 at 3:56 pm

    MOB_i_L: He wrote a PC emulator that happens to be able to run Linux. Saying it is a GPL violation is like saying any PC that runs Linux is also a GPL violation.

    More to the point, can’t you just appreciate an amazing bit of code for a moment?

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