phys169@canterbury.ac.nz (10/03/90)
A quick question: What is available in the way of emulator programs for 88K machines, to mimic a PC/AT, or any other computer? (e.g. NOVA II :-) Also, is the 88K CPU intrinsically better or worse than other competing RISC systems for the job of emulating other processors (e.g. I have heard that emulating a PC on a Sparcstation gobbles most of the resources and gives you only a mediocre PC; obviously emulators are slow, but would a comparably priced 88K system be better - due to more appropriate instruction set or whatever)? Hopefully, some people who actually use systems will be able to reply. The background is that I wonder whether it is practical to move over users of several machines, with their software, without grumbles about the old system being better. Thanks. Mark Aitchison, Physics, University of Canterbury, New Zealand.
lewine@dg-rtp.dg.com (Donald Lewine) (10/04/90)
In article <1990Oct3.095041.9295@canterbury.ac.nz>, phys169@canterbury.ac.nz writes: |> A quick question: |> What is available in the way of emulator programs for 88K machines, to mimic a |> PC/AT, or any other computer? (e.g. NOVA II :-) |> SoftPC from Insignia Solutions Ltd. OpenPC from Phoenix Technology, Inc. are both PC emulators which let you run IBM PC software on an 88K. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Donald A. Lewine (508) 870-9008 Voice Data General Corporation (508) 366-0750 FAX 4400 Computer Drive. MS D112A Westboro, MA 01580 U.S.A. uucp: uunet!dg!lewine Internet: lewine@cheshirecat.webo.dg.com
andrew@frip.WV.TEK.COM (Andrew Klossner) (10/05/90)
[]
"What is available in the way of emulator programs for 88K
machines, to mimic a PC/AT, or any other computer?"
One that I have personal experience with is "Soft PC," which emulates a
basic IBM PC. There are ports available for the Tektronix and Motorola
platforms, and possibly others. It's made by Insignia but is sold, in
these two cases, by the platform vendors.
The Tektronix port includes emulation of the PC display and floppy
disk, so graphics programs and copy-protected software work. I have no
experience with other ports.
-=- Andrew Klossner (uunet!tektronix!frip.WV.TEK!andrew) [UUCP]
(andrew%frip.wv.tek.com@relay.cs.net) [ARPA]michael@mcdchg.chg.mcd.mot.com (Michael Bodine) (10/06/90)
phys169@canterbury.ac.nz writes: > What is available in the way of emulator programs for 88K machines, to mimic a > PC/AT, or any other computer? (e.g. NOVA II :-) The Phoenix Technologies and Insignia products mentioned in other postings are both available. I've had experience with the SoftPC on both the Macintosh and Motorola 88K systems. On a dedicated system (like the Mac or with a single user on a unix system) performance is acceptable. However, such emulations are resource hogs, gobbling lots of cpu cycles, memory, swapping space, network packets, etc., etc. I would suspect that if you want to take a large group of knowledgable and dedicated PC users and put them all on a unix machine to run nothing but emulated PC packages, none of those users will come to your funeral, which will happen almost immediately! If, on the other hand, you want to utilize the 88K machines resources and make the PC emulation available for occasional use, that would be quite acceptable. Most Motorola Computer Group sales offices have MPC or Delta series computers available for demonstration; you can go in and see for yourself what it looks like by running multiple copies of the SoftPC emulation. -- [ Michael Bodine, michael@chg.mcd.mot.com, Dial: (708) 576-7840, FAX: x8875 ] [ Motorola MCD; Loc IL38; 1100 Woodfield; Suite 334; Schaumburg, Il 60173 ]
andrew@frip.WV.TEK.COM (Andrew Klossner) (10/09/90)
[]
"On a dedicated system, performance is acceptable. However,
such emulations are resource hogs ..."
Yes. In the case of Insignia's Soft PC product, the process never goes
to sleep except when doing I/O. When the emulated MSDOS program
sleeps, and MSDOS enters its idle loop, Soft PC keeps the pedal to the
metal emulating that idle loop.
The operator can suspend Soft PC, freezing the simulated machine, when
some other Unix process needs to get some work done. (In the Tektronix
implementation, this is done by mouse-clicking on the ON/OFF button on
the simulated front panel.)
-=- Andrew Klossner (uunet!tektronix!frip.WV.TEK!andrew) [UUCP]
(andrew%frip.wv.tek.com@relay.cs.net) [ARPA]ron@Eyring.COM (Ron Holt) (10/09/90)
In article <9298@orca.wv.tek.com> andrew@frip.wv.tek.com writes: > "On a dedicated system, performance is acceptable. However, > such emulations are resource hogs ..." > >Yes. In the case of Insignia's Soft PC product, the process never goes >to sleep except when doing I/O. When the emulated MSDOS program >sleeps, and MSDOS enters its idle loop, Soft PC keeps the pedal to the >metal emulating that idle loop. I visited Insignia Solutions last year. At that time, they told me about "idle detection" algorithms that they were working on. These algorithms were supposed to detect code execution patterns that would indicate that the MS-DOS program (or MS-DOS itself) was spinning (waiting for input, for example). Perhaps someone knows if they have made any progress in this area... -- Ron Holt ron@Eyring.COM uunet!lanai!ron Eyring Inc. +1 801-375-2434 x434