Hosting a website on an 8-bit microcontroller
An engineer successfully hosted a simple website using an 8-bit AVR64DD32 microcontroller, leveraging Serial Line Internet Protocol (SLIP) and a minimal TCP implementation to enable basic web functionality. Despite hardware limitations, the system connects to the internet via a serial link and uses WireGuard to allow remote access through a Linux router with a public IP. The project demonstrates the feasibility of running networked services on extremely limited hardware with creative software solutions.
- ▪The AVR64DD32 microcontroller has 8 kB RAM, 64 kB flash, and runs at 24 MHz, costing only $1.
- ▪Ethernet was deemed too fast for the microcontroller, so SLIP over a serial connection was used instead.
- ▪A custom TCP implementation was written, as full TCP support required handling connection states and packet retransmission.
- ▪The web server responds with a hardcoded HTTP response, limiting it to a single URL.
- ▪WireGuard is used on a Linux machine in Helsinki to provide a virtual network link, enabling public access to the microcontroller-hosted site.
Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
Hosting a website on an 8-bit microcontroller. 2026-05-11 — 2026-05-14 (Electronics) (Programming) In today's episode of "dumb things to do with an AVR microcontroller": Does your server come with real wood? MCU website demo (may go down if this gets posted to HN) My victim is the AVR64DD32 which is quite similar to the Atmega328 of Arduino fame. Compared to the older Atmega, these AVR DD lines are cheaper for the same memory, use a single programming pin and have nicer peripherals: CPU:Single 8-bit AVR core @ 24 MHz (max) RAM:8 kB (static RAM) Flash:64 kB EEPROM:256 bytes Voltage:1.8 - 5.5 Volts Cost:$1 So that's the computer (a rather spacious one at that) but it'll need an internet connection to host a website.
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Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at Maurycyz.
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