Developer Runs Doom On $50 Apple Lightning To HDMI Adapter 47
A developer has successfully run the classic video game Doom on Apple's $50 Lightning to HDMI adapter, exploiting the device's built-in system-on-chip that runs a simplified iOS version.
Probably more power than a 386 Desktop (Score:5, Informative)
The iOS SOC in that adapter probably has more capability than the whole desktops that ran it initially, so sure why not.
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Re: Probably more power than a 386 Desktop (Score:2)
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Doom ran on a 386, which released in 1985. There's not much value in mass producing chips weaker than that today.
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Crawled, more like. It only ran on a 486 DX.
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Crawled, more like. It only ran on a 486 DX.
It ran on a Super Nintendo with a co-processor that definitely was not a 486 DX.
And what else can it run? (Score:1)
Typical Apple. (Score:5, Funny)
I looked it up. You can't upgrade the RAM. Or anything else for that matter. Why anybody would lock themselves in like that is beyond me.
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was this meant to be funny? it wasnt. maybe try again next time with more humor.
I disagree with you. Does that make me correct?
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I disagree with you. Does that make me correct?
Odds are good.
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I disagree with you. Does that make me correct?
Odds are good.
Thank you, Magic 8 Ball.
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I think that perhaps what you need isn't "more humour"... but "simpler humour". Deadpan is, after all, more reliant on the active participation of the recipient than are other forms of comedy. Delivering deadpan to dumb people falls flat.
Not to say you're dumb... but to imply it.
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Well now you've ruined my day. If I can't run FS2024 on it what's the point......
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If I can't run FS2024 on it what's the point......
To be fair, nothing can run FS2024...
Re:Typical Apple. (Score:4, Interesting)
put Linux on it. Then you can run ZRAM to increase available memory and a swap drive over the USB connector. Basically infinite amount of address space in a tiny little box.
So what? (Score:2)
These have gotten lame now. Any Turing machine runs doom. And no, I don't want to see doom running on tape moving machine. How about doing something else for a change? I like the adaptor hacking part, but then running Doom on it is like whatever. Don't get me wrong I loved Doom back in 1993 or whenever but did we really need to keep rehashing Doom and only Doom? It had a great contribution to gaming and 3D but how about maybe run a demo of Maze war and then show some video game evolution all the way up to a
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Doing it with a decent framerate at least demonstrates some decent MIPS and I/O capabilities that aren't addressed in the Turning Machine model of computing. That's the problem with a TM. It can't tell you the time of day, because execution time is a side effect that lives outside of that theoretical model.
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decent MIPS and I/O capabilities that aren't addressed in the Turning Machine model of computing
Er, you might want to dig out your old notes. Or borrow someone else's.
That's the problem with a TM. It can't tell you the time of day
Don't be so sure [youtube.com]
because execution time is a side effect that lives outside of that theoretical model
Hmm... Maybe skip the notes and dust off your old text book.
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Cute video. not actually using Turing's description. But that's fine, it's enjoyable at least.
It's was extremely useful for generalizing computational theory and algorithms and in demonstrating the halting problem.
You might want to check your own notes on what an algorithm is.
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You might want to check your own notes on what an algorithm is.
Where do you believe I've gone wrong?
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Feel free to do something better yourself (Score:1)
Thought I suspect you wouldn't know where to start.
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Re:So what? (Score:4, Informative)
The astounding thing about a waltzing bear is not how gracefully it waltzes but that it waltzes at all. - I think this is from Robert A. Heinlein's Time Enough for Love.
It seems Doom on obscure platform [whatever] has become the new waltzing bear. Yeah, lame in terms of utility, but good for geek creds.
Now I'd like to see Doom running as an Excel spreadsheet. Oh, wait. [gamedeveloper.com]
Re:So what? (Score:4, Interesting)
These have gotten lame now. Any Turing machine runs doom.
Well, yes, but. I'm continuously astounded (a) what everyday items have embedded SoC's on them and (b) how creative people get reprogramming those controllers.
I'm also gobsmacked the easiest way to make the dongle work was to produce a stripped down iOS. I mean, I get it, you've got the OS source just sitting there in your local repo and perhaps sharing key exchange code would be handy. But surely a video dongle could just run some code on the bare silicon in real mode. Why does it need an OS at all?
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Why does it need an OS at all?
So the "right" group can slip something in there if needed... but it'll just be used against the bad guys. For real this time!
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Why does it need an OS at all?
So the "right" group can slip something in there if needed... but it'll just be used against the bad guys. For real this time!
That SoC doesn't even have a ROM. The firmware is loaded every time it's plugged in.
And wtf would an iPhone-HDMI dongle be an attack vector for, like you couldn't just sneak a SoC into a generic charger adapter instead.
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These have gotten lame now. Any Turing machine runs doom.
Well, yes, but. I'm continuously astounded (a) what everyday items have embedded SoC's on them and (b) how creative people get reprogramming those controllers.
I'm also gobsmacked the easiest way to make the dongle work was to produce a stripped down iOS. I mean, I get it, you've got the OS source just sitting there in your local repo and perhaps sharing key exchange code would be handy. But surely a video dongle could just run some code on the bare silicon in real mode. Why does it need an OS at all?
It's not an OS by any definition, the firmware is just a kernel that runs a single process, not even a filesystem. The dev firmware apparently has a little filesystem with some debug utilities, that's what this guy used.
https://panic.com/blog/the-lig... [panic.com]
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I think the bigger takeaway is the absurdity of an HDMI cable requiring an embedded SOC
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Imagine a beowulf cluster of these bad boys!
Re: So what? (Score:2)
Why does it need a full OS install? (Score:3)
Just to convert from one serial protocol to another? Talk about overkill.
Re:Why does it need a full OS install? (Score:4, Insightful)
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+1 insightful.
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Just to convert from one serial protocol to another? Talk about overkill.
HDMI is not a serial protocol.
Nobody said the SoC is running a "full" OS.
Doom doesn't require a "full" OS, it ran in 16-bit real mode on DOS.
https://panic.com/blog/the-lig... [panic.com]
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Doom most certainly didn't run in 16 bit real mode.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
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Just to convert from one serial protocol to another? Talk about overkill.
Because Lightning is too slow to be usable for full-frame video. It is limited to 480 Mbps (USB 2.0 speeds) on all but a small handful of devices.
To work around that problem, Apple encodes MPEG video or similar using the hardware codec in their chipset, then decompresses it on the other side. Basically, it is AirPlay, just with the data sent over USB. This allows them to get down to a data rate that is feasible over such a slow link. It also means that the device has to basically be a small computer.
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Just to convert from one serial protocol to another? Talk about overkill.
Is it really such a wild idea that they had a bunch of chips sitting in a warehouse they wanted to use up?
That's pretty good, but can it run ... (Score:3)
... errrm ... nevermind.
Old nerds will one day run Doom on everything (Score:2)
The older I get the more convinced I am that one day I will see someone running Doom on a hearing aid.
Runs well on a Raspberry Pico for $3 (Score:2)