EXO Labs Runs Modern Llama 2 AI on a 1997 Windows 98 Pentium II PC

TECH

By Aniket Chakraborty May 7, 2025 Arrow

The team bought the vintage PC for £118.88 and tackled major hardware compatibility challenges.

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With no USB ports, they relied on PS/2 peripherals and Ethernet for critical file transfers.

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Modern code had to be rewritten using 26-year-old Borland C++ 5.02 to fit the old processor.

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The lightweight llama2.c, a 700-line C code, made the AI model run on ancient hardware.

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The 260K parameter model generated 39.31 tokens per second — a historic achievement.

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Larger models like 15M and 1B parameters ran slower but proved possible on the machine.

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BitNet architecture, using ternary weights, played a key role in reducing computational load.

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BitNet models are CPU-first and over 50% more energy efficient than traditional AI models.

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EXO Labs’ work hints at a future where powerful AI could run on old, low-power hardware.

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