Running DOS on a Behringer DDX3216 mixer with a DIY BIOS

Article excerpt

Christian Nöding’s first computer was an Intel i486 DX2-66 with 4 MB RAM and a 512MB hard disk. In 2026, 32 years later, he learned from some screenshots of the DDX3216, that Behringer used a real 386 processor within their mixer. Immediately, some of my neurons fired in my head and I pondered if I could boot software and even a full operating system on this device. My goal was to learn how an x86-system is booting, how DOS takes over and what is necessary to get into the shell. The full source code can be found here on GitHub: https://github.com/xn, nding-jua/DDX3216. Check out all the ways the software had to evolve to get things going in the post here.