groves@noao.edu (Lee Groves) (02/02/89)
I know that the justification is arguable, but it would seem that Apple has
given us the missing piece in the quest for an Apple ][ emulator.
The IIx and SE/30 provide for the reading and writing of 3 1/2 inch ProDOS
formatted disks. It would seem that one should be able to write a 65C02
emulator in assembly for the 68030 that would run at the same speed as
the 1 MHZ version in the ][e.
The code required to drive peripherals (except video & keyboard) is on the
cards themselves, so one could, on an access to the I/O region, trap out to
virtual "devices" that would take advantage of the Mac's resources, and remain
transparent to the 65xx code.
The video could be handled by a deamon that scrolled through the ][e video
memory and mapped into the grafport of the ][e process.
All the pieces are there. So, who's going to do it?
Lee
--
Lee J. Groves, National Optical Astronomy Observatories, Tucson, AZ
Usenet: {arizona,decvax,ncar}!noao!lgroves or uunet!noao.edu!lgroves
Internet: lgroves@noao.edu SPAN/HEPNET: draco::lgroves
Phonenet: 602-325-9357wrs@Apple.COM (Walter Smith) (02/02/89)
Programs to emulate Apple II machines on Macintoshes have existed for at least three years. Some of them even read and write 3-1/2 inch Apple II disks (on non-FDHD floppy drives). They all work as you envision them, trapping references to I/O space and so forth. Most of them give you a more full-featured Apple II than any *I* ever used. One or two serial cards, two disk drives, a joystick, an 80-column card, and lots of memory is the usual setup. The main problem is getting the necessary ROM code, which usually comes in a separate data file. It's copyrighted, of course, so you can't really distribute it with the product, although many companies did it anyway. The usual legal approach is to connect a real Apple II to the Mac with a serial cable and run a download program to copy the ROMs on the II, which you presumably own, to the Mac. - Walt -- Walter Smith wrs@apple.com, apple!wrs Apple Computer, Inc. (408) 974-5892 My corporation disavows any knowledge of my activities on the network.