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Author Re: Machine language and assembler translators?
toby

2005-07-24, 8:59 pm

glen herrmannsfeldt wrote:
> Jatin Bhateja, Noida wrote:
>
>
>
> (snip)
>
> ...
>
> When Apple started selling PowerPC based Macs the new OS included the
> ability to run 680x0 code, using some type of run time translation.


The first 68K emulator Apple shipped was an interpreter. The second
generation of Power Macs introduced a dynamic recompiling emulator
(much faster). This emulator is still in the Classic runtime of current
versions of OS X (so you can transparently run *integer* 68K code on
any Power Mac up to the present).

Apple plans to use a PowerPC emulator (Rosetta) to help users make the
transition from PowerPC to the x86-based product line. I'm surprised
they would go to so much effort, since unlike the 68K-PPC transition,
"porting" to the x86 architecture is largely just a recompile - the
APIs already being platform agnostic.

Much has been written about binary translation. For instance, there is
an informative white paper about ARDI's Syn68k:
http://www.ardi.com/syn68k.php There is a Yahoo! group,
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dynarec/ which is occasionally active
and apparently working on a project. Past posts go into some detail on
translation technicalities.

--Toby
glen herrmannsfeldt

2005-07-26, 5:03 pm

toby wrote:

(snip)

(snip about Apple 68K emulator under PPC)

> Apple plans to use a PowerPC emulator (Rosetta) to help users make the
> transition from PowerPC to the x86-based product line. I'm surprised
> they would go to so much effort, since unlike the 68K-PPC transition,
> "porting" to the x86 architecture is largely just a recompile - the
> APIs already being platform agnostic.


Now, I wonder what happens when you run 68K mac code on an x86 emulating
PowerPC. Does it emulate the 68K emulator?

Hmm, that will be interesting to see...

-- glen
Hans Aberg

2005-07-28, 4:02 am

<gah@ugcs.caltech.edu> wrote:

[color=darkred]
> Does it emulate the 68K emulator?


No. In "Universal Binary Programming Guidelines", check out "Appendix A:
Rosetta; What can be translated?"
http://developer.apple.com/document...iversal_binary/

--
Hans Aberg

Jens Kilian

2005-07-28, 4:02 am

glen herrmannsfeldt <gah@ugcs.caltech.edu> writes:
> Now, I wonder what happens when you run 68K mac code on an x86 emulating
> PowerPC. Does it emulate the 68K emulator?
>
> Hmm, that will be interesting to see...


Seven(!) years ago, there was this:

http://web.archive.org/web/20050726...ntests/five.jpg

(CP/M emulator running inside a Mac emulator, inside an MS-DOS prompt, inside
a Windows emulator, inside *another* Mac emulator, inside BeOS.)

--
mailto:jjk@acm.org As the air to a bird, or the sea to a fish,
http://www.bawue.de/~jjk/ so is contempt to the contemptible. [Blake]
http://del.icio.us/jjk

A Pietu Pohjalainen

2005-07-28, 4:02 am

glen herrmannsfeldt <gah@ugcs.caltech.edu> wrote:
> Now, I wonder what happens when you run 68K mac code on an x86 emulating
> PowerPC. Does it emulate the 68K emulator?


> Hmm, that will be interesting to see...


The current knowledge is that the Classic environment will be
scrapped on Intel macs. Too bad - it wouldn't be that big effort (as far
as I understand..) to convert it to run straight on x86. But then again,
maybe the benefits are even lower.

br,
Pietu
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