Running Llama2.c TinyStories Models on ARM7TDMI Hardware
November 1, 2026
A custom Rockbox plugin enables Karpathy's llama2.c TinyStories models to run on an iPod Video using an 80 MHz ARM7TDMI. The implementation replaces floating-point operations with integer math using lookup tables for exponent/softmax and integer square root for RMSNorm.
HOW THIS AFFECTS YOU
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builderYou can explore extreme quantization and integer-only math optimizations for edge deployment on legacy hardware.
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researcherThis demonstrates the feasibility of running small language models on hardware lacking an FPU.