An MS-DOS-based Portable PC from 1984 is shown to be running the modern-day ChatGPT client without any issues.
A developer creates a ChatGPT client to run on MS-DOS and uses it on a 1984 IBM portable computer
Yeo Kheng Meng (yeokm1 on GitHub) is a "retrocomputing enthusiast." Three and a half years ago, the developer created a Slack client that ran on the Windows 3.1 operating system. With ChatGPT being the new buzzword and OpenAI releasing several APIs for programmers and developers, he wanted to challenge himself and have ChatGPT running on a vintage operating system/platform. He decided to get the AI chatbot to work on MS-DOS in his recent project.
The video below shows the MS-DOS-based ChatGPT clone in action. Yeo Kheng Meng has to launch MTCP DHCP to access an IP address from his router before using the application.
Yeo chose DOS because of the challenge of using an older platform, like Windows 3.1, that he had used for the custom Slack client that he developed. The system he chose to utilize is an IBM 5155 Portable PC that was created in 1984. He provides a list of specifications for this project:
- Intel 8088 4.77Mhz CPU
- 640KB conventional memory (using upgrade kit)
- CGA ISA graphics
- NE2000-compatible ISA Ethernet adapter
- XT-IDE ISA drive controller
- MS-DOS 6.22
He has documented with pictures the components utilized in the IBM 5155 portable PC for users interested in the computer's internals.
To begin with, developing the ChatGPT client in MS-DOS, he first needed to find a compiler that would work in the 16-bit DOS environment. After searching the internet for ideas, he found the Open Watcom C/C++ compiler the best option. The chosen compiler is a 32-bit application compatible with Windows 11 64-bit versions. The first hurdle needed to overcome was working with Windows 11 since 16-bit DOS applications do not run by default. There are third-party applications he could have used, such as winevdm, but they would not work for his particular needs in this project.
Yeo used a VirtualBox on his virtual machine for his DOS 6.22 environment. Using a bridged network to the host computer so that his virtual machine could access his internet connection, he began work on the ChatGPT DOS clone. The host machine used a simple Python-based web server, while the virtual machine used the MTCP library created by Michael B. Brutman.
Yeo found that with the lacking of network functions within DOS, he needed to utilize Visual Studio Code text editor and then parse JSON output from OpenAI's Chat Completion API. Once completed, the system, albeit slightly slow by today's standards, ran similarly to ChatGPT, including answering his first requests incorrectly. Within time the system would learn just like the widely used version of the generative AI application. Still, it is the oldest system currently running an AI-based generative pre-trained transformer.
News Sources: Yeo Kheng Meng's blog, GitHub, Kuai Technology
