WTF?! Whereas handheld PCs just like the Steam Deck and the Asus ROG Ally characteristic spectacular fashionable Linux and Home windows help, and gadgets just like the Hand 386 put Home windows 95 into customers’ pockets, one other system goes but additional again in time. The E-book 8088 seeks to miniaturize the daybreak of x86 computing.
A brand new handheld PC lately appeared on AliExpress that includes a mix of recent and really previous chips, together with the legendary Intel 8088. The system appears much like the already curious Hand 386, solely extra retro.
The E-book 8088 runs at 4.77 MHz however can attain 8 MHz in turbo mode. The customized motherboard contains 640 KB of RAM appropriate with an X-IDE CF card for storage. For graphics, its IBM-CGA shows 16 colours at 640 x 200 pixels. Though the unit’s display screen is an LCD, the system can connect with an IBM 5153 CRT monitor for a extra genuine presentation. Moreover, customers can optionally embrace a Yamaha YMF262-M OPL3 sound card.
These {hardware} specs enable the E-book 8088 to run MS-DOS and Home windows 3.0, granting native handheld entry to traditional video games like Commander Eager, PlanetX3, Ossuary, and extra with out requiring emulation. The identification of the hand held’s producer is unclear, however the developer of an open-source 8088 BIOS claims that the system makes use of his work with out crediting him.
Intel initially launched the 8088 CPU in 1981 as a slimmed-down model of the 8086. The 8088 gained fame because the processor in IBM’s 5150 – IBM’s first PC and the system that popularized the x86 normal that has dominated computer systems for over 40 years.
Tasks just like the open-source 8088 BIOS and a latest ChatGPT shopper present that improvement for the influential processor persists. The $240 E-book 8088 might present a compact, handy testing floor for tinkering with previous and new software program.
The retro PC could have come from the identical firm that earlier unveiled the Hand 386, one other transportable PC constructed on Intel’s 386 processor, meant to copy and miniaturize a barely later interval of computing historical past. Working at a way more sturdy 40 MHz with 8 MB of reminiscence, this system helps DOS, Home windows 3.1, and Home windows 95. Along with the video games playable on the E-book 8088, the Hand 386 additionally runs the unique launch of Doom. Nevertheless, no models stay obtainable on AliExpress, and it’s unknown when or if extra inventory is coming.
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