Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!cbmvax!daveh
From: daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.emulations
Subject: Re: IBM emulator
Message-ID: <22021@cbmvax.commodore.com>
Date: 30 May 91 00:14:35 GMT
References: <1991May23.083822.10099@rulway.LeidenUniv.nl>
Reply-To: daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie)
Organization: Commodore, West Chester, PA
Lines: 60

In article <1991May23.083822.10099@rulway.LeidenUniv.nl> breemen@rulcvx.LeidenUniv.nl (E. van Breemen) writes:

>Last time I read about an IBM emulator which had a speed of 10% of a
>4.77 Mhz IBM. 

That's roughly what Commodore's Transformer program did.

>In my opinion a 4.77 Mhz IBM is very slow, so how can people work with a 
>.477 Mhz IBM? All this talk about emulating other computers is stupid, you 
>never use them. The first reason why you will use such an emulator is to run 
>software which isn't on the Amiga (like PageMaker, WordPerfect 5.5 or Turbo 
>Pascal 6.0). 

Of course it isn't.  You use an IBM emulator to run one or two program types
that aren't on the Amiga.  I couldn't personally care the less for PageMaker
when I can use Professional Page or PageStream.  Same goes for WordPerfect
5.5 vs. ProWrite or Excellence, for those with a taste for wordprocessors.
And for Pascal of any flavor; I used it for four long years in college, that
was 3.5 years too long.  If you really want IBM PC applications instead of
their equivalents or betters on the Amiga, you get a PC or at least a Bridge
Card.  

However, there are some programs you may need that only run on a PC.  One 
example I use are a PAL compilers.  They doesn't have to run often, nor do
they have to run all that fast.  But without one, you can't make PALs.  Without 
PALs, you can't make expansion boards.  If it takes 100 seconds versus 10 to 
run through the PAL equations, no big deal.  I'm sure other people have other 
examples.

>Second you use an emulator if you can't buy the original computer. But
>that means that you don't have money: the packages you want to run have
>to be copied (piracy). 

There's a great deal of difference between running a low cost or free program
(some companies, for example, gives away their PAL compilers so that you'll use
their PALs) for an additional $10-$30 on your already paid for system.  You
would be a fool, or taken for one, if you had to spend $1000-$2000 to run one
lousy program.

>For example, it is better to buy an IBM 80386 clone (25 Mhz, 4MB, XGA, 40Mb 
>harddisk) for $2000. 

Yeah, dream on.  IBM is currently the only one selling XGA boards, and their
XGA systems go for substantially more than $2000.  You can certainly get a 
VGA+ system for that.  So what, when it's all said and done, you still have
a PClone.  I'd rather buy an emulator, and spend the remaining $1975 on beer.
Or a trip to the Bahamas.

>This machine is more than 16 times faster as a 4.77 Mhz IBM (faster as 
>A3000?). 

CPU wise, a '386 system at 25MHz is about as fast as an A3000.  With cache, 
faster than a basic A3000.  The corresponding el-cheapo VGA boards are way 
slow.  The hard disks are worse, as is the expansion bus, on most of these
cheap puppies.  All depends on what you want.

-- 
Dave Haynie Commodore-Amiga (Amiga 3000) "The Crew That Never Rests"
   {uunet|pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax!daveh      PLINK: hazy     BIX: hazy
      "That's me in the corner, that's me in the spotlight" -R.E.M.