Portable IBM PC With MS-DOS From 1984 Is Shown Running The ChatGPT Client

wccftech.com:

An MS-DOS-based Portable PC from 1984 is shown to be running the modern-day ChatGPT client without any issues.

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:

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