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[Hardware Question] What is the minamum hardware needed to run gemini

Jason McBrayer jmcbray at carcosa.net

Wed Jun 9 15:40:30 BST 2021

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Andrew Singleton writes:

While in theory 'snythingbthst can display a terminal's is a good

gemeni candidate, there is the problem of what it takes to run tls

encode/decode. So thebwudtion splits between what is a minamum to run

gemini by itself. And whstbeoukd need an external device to act as

mediation ksyervrorvenceyption? Example being that wifi to serial

adaptor for retro hardware, but instead of just wifi, it handling the

tls and either translating Gemini to gopher, or to a retro client that

seeks a handshake from the dogkevso it knows not to even bother with

encryption.

My *guess* is that, using real retro hardware, the minimum would be an80386 or a 68020. OpenSSL will build for 386, but you have to specifyyou want it at compile time, because the default x86 32-bit buildrequires a 486.

Anything older than that, especially 8 or 16 bit micros, you'll need toeither use a TLS-terminating proxy on a modern small machine (like a PiZero) that speaks either Gopher or a non-TLS Gemini variant (Mercury) tothe client, and Gemini to the server; or, as someone else suggested,offload the TLS to a modern microcontroller somehow.

-- Jason McBrayer | “Strange is the night where black stars rise,jmcbray at carcosa.net | and strange moons circle through the skies, | but stranger still is lost Carcosa.” | ― Robert W. Chambers,The King in Yellow