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Tom’s Hardware
Tom’s Hardware
Technology
Dallin Grimm

Linux can run on only 4MB of SRAM — Azure Sphere and SudoMaker's X1501 Pico show off the extremes of Linux's small-scale potential

SudoMaker's X1501 Pico SoM, pictured from its Hackaday page.

Linux, the discerning user's choice, is famous for its ability to scale down to a minuscule size. Here to prove it are two itty-bitty modules running Linux with only single-digit megabytes of RAM, displayed in a classic example of Twitter oneupmanship.

Microsoft's Azure Sphere modules are full microcomputers smaller than a desktop CPU, which contain only 4MB of SRAM right on the processor die and run Microsoft's own Unix-like Azure Sphere OS to power the Internet of Things (IoT). But SudoMaker's X1501 Pico SoM has a whole 8MB of RAM, a twice-as-fast processor, and is a complete SoM unit with I/O and interfacing at 1/3rd of the surface area of the Azure Sphere modules — and unlike Azure Sphere modules, the X1501 Pico can even run DOOM. 

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