The z386 Is an FPGA Re-implementation of Intel's i386 — And Yes, It Runs Doom
Pseudonymous developer and vintage computing enthusiast "nand2mario" has released an open source equivalent to Intel's i386 processor — and, as you might expect, has proven its capabilities by running id Software's 1993 classic Doom.
"z386 is a 386-class CPU built around the original Intel microcode, in the same spirit as z8086," nand2mario explains. "The core is not an instruction-by-instruction emulator in RTL [Register Transfer Level]. The goal is to recreate enough of the original machine that the recovered 386 control ROM can drive it. Today z386 boots [Microsoft MS-]DOS 6 and DOS 7, runs protected-mode programs like DOS/4GW and DOS/32A, and plays games like [id Software's] Doom and [Sensible Software's] Cannon Fodder."
The z386 project puts this, Intel's i386 processor, into an FPGA. (📷: Pauli Rautakorpi, CC-BY 3.0)
Intel launched the 386, originally as the 80386 and later the i386, in 1985, promising boosted performance over its predecessor the 286...
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