Acorn Archimedes Emulator?

[RatchetMan]

Does anyone know if it would be possible to create an Acorn Archimedes emulator for the GP32. How different is the ARM3 used in the Acorn machines from the ARM9 used in the GP32?

For those of you who have never heard of the Acorn Archimedes, it was an ARM3 based desktop machine of the early 90s which had some good games. It is still being commecialy produced in the UK today..

 

[Tobriand]

I imagine ARM ASM has changed significantly since then, but its quite possible (from an uninformed point of view) that not so significantly that, say, the same trick GPAdvance pulls couldn't be used. This could be wrong.

However, there are 3 custom chips involved, and I haven't a clue either how powerful they were nor how well documented they are. The former affects whether it could be emulated in the first place; the Amiga has 3 chips, and the general concensus is that its unlikely to be emulated, and certainly not at full speed (at least, without a recompiler type emulator). How these compare to the Archimedes, I do not know. However, there would be more horsepower available to emulate them (quite a lot more) if the GPA trick is doable.

This is, of course, all pointless talk if it turns out the chips are very poorly documented a la those in the Lynx or similar, in which case it would be very hard to write an emulator regardless of which machine you were aiming at bringing it to.

Short answer: I don't know, but the low end ones look at least possible, if not likely.

Do bear in mind I am not a coder, though (or at least, not on anything like that level).

 

[MegatronUK]

Both Linux and NetBSD run quite happily on ARM32 machines (A5000+, A7000, RiscPC, etc.. my little 33Mhz ARM7 powered A7000 will run NetBSD nicely), there are even versions running on the old ARM26 machines (A30x0, A3x0, 4x0 etc.).

The docs are out there with enough info to emulate the VIDC, IO and sound controllers (which are relatively simplistic compared to modern hardware, or even the Amiga).

ARM assembly *should* be opcode compatible throughout the family, it's been along time since I did any ARM assembly (back in college), but I think ARM3 assembly should run on the ARM9, no problem.

What *would* be interesting would be a hack of RiscOS system calls, to run on the GP32, natively, with direct cpu access and just the controller chips emulated.. result? The GP32, with its superior, high-clocked ARM9 cpu, would run RiscOS and RiscOS apps and games at a speed faster than all but the StrongArm equipped Acorn workstations......

 

[Tobriand]

What *would* be interesting would be a hack of RiscOS system calls, to run on the GP32, natively, with direct cpu access and just the controller chips emulated.. result? The GP32, with its superior, high-clocked ARM9 cpu, would run RiscOS and RiscOS apps and games at a speed faster than all but the StrongArm equipped Acorn workstations......

​

*Drool*

Someone start work on one of these... pwetty pwease lol