Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!uwvax!rutgers!cbmvax!daveh From: daveh@cbmvax.UUCP (Dave Haynie) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: Amiga Emulators Message-ID: <4954@cbmvax.UUCP> Date: 6 Oct 88 16:14:24 GMT References: Organization: Commodore Technology, West Chester, PA Lines: 33 in article , rg20+@andrew.cmu.edu (Rick Francis Golembiewski) says: > > I've wondered why doesn't some one make a program that, instead of trying to > emulate all of the hardware, doesn't take the software and create 68K machine > code, treating the software as "source" code of a high level language (in this > case one which has all the attributes of say an IBM or a Mac...). The cases of IBM and Mac are radically different, for one. The "IBM Emulator" is a true case of an emulator, the PC bridge card software is a partial emulator. For a "Mac Emulator", you're really just implementing the Mac OS on a somewhat different 68000 based machine. There's not all that much to really emulate, some, but not much. Which is why you see slow IBM Emulators, while Mac Emulators on 68000 machines (like the Atari "Magic Sac") can actually run the Mac OS faster than similar Macs can run it. If emulating the CPU was all there is to it on an IBM emulator, you could write an assembly code translator to produce a 68000 version of the same program, and it wouldn't be all that difficult. The problem is that most IBM programs, as C64 programs, write directly to the machine's hardware, instead of going to the hardware through OS calls. So there's no way to implement those function on alien hardware other than by directly emulating that hardware in software. And that slows things down. The other problem is that these older systems also tend to use self-modifying code, which you can't translate automatically. Still, I find the idea of such translators more interesting than the emulators that are popular today. > [Disclaimer: Me? Post that? Impossible I never post anything... ] > [CYouAllLater(Everyone); <--- a "functional" goodbye ] > [ Rick Golembiewski {Pronounciation is 1/2 the battle, spelling the other ] -- Dave Haynie "The 32 Bit Guy" Commodore-Amiga "The Crew That Never Rests" {ihnp4|uunet|rutgers}!cbmvax!daveh PLINK: D-DAVE H BIX: hazy "I can't relax, 'cause I'm a Boinger!"