Soul Player C64 – A real transformer running on a 1 MHz Commodore 64

Article

• 25K-parameter transformer model running entirely on a Commodore 64 at 1 MHz
• Produces broken/nonsensical sentences — proof of architecture, not capability
• Demo available on project page; live chat mostly says hello/bye

Discussion

• Skeptics question whether broken output proves the architecture ‘works’
• Nostalgia strong: Vic-20 random sentence generators, ELIZA comparisons, Load’*’,8,1 memories
• Debate on whether compute or architecture is the real bottleneck for small models
• ‘i hate ai, and i love the c64, but i’ll allow it’ sums up the thread

Discuss on HN