CLEARLY the emulator everyone should focus on should be.....

[mastershakejb]

The Dreamcast emulator, since the Dreamcast was built on an Arm processor. You could probly port Dreamcast's Quake III and many others almost directly onto the thing with little to no change in code. Remember all them sweet Dreamcast games? I bet they'd all be a snap. Crazy Taxi! Shenmue! Powerstone! Tony Hawk! so so many
In fact, I think it was just an Arm processor @ 200 mghz, nothin more. So it'd be a total snap.

 

[anexanhume]

The Dreamcast emulator, since the Dreamcast was built on an Arm processor. You could probly port Dreamcast's Quake III and many others almost directly onto the thing with little to no change in code. Remember all them sweet Dreamcast games? I bet they'd all be a snap. Crazy Taxi! Shenmue! Powerstone! Tony Hawk! so so many

You have the source code for those dreamcast games? If not, you're out of luck. The similar processor is the graphics core, not an ARM core. Dreamcast emulation is not likely at playable speeds by most guesses. DrkIziel (sp?) is working on a nullDC port to PSP, then will put it on the pandora.

 

[Shikaku]

The Dreamcast emulator, since the Dreamcast was built on an Arm processor.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreamcast

CPU 200 MHz Hitachi SH4 RISC
GPU 100 MHz PowerVR2 CLX2

 

[mkinzler]

The soundprocessor was based upon arm. The dreamcast also got an predeccesor of the 3d-Unit

 

[mastershakejb]

RISC and ARM are very closely related aren't they?

 

[anexanhume]

RISC is a type of instruction set (referring to the instruction set architecture: Reduced Instruction Set Computing). ARM is a RISC device, but that doesn't mean it is all similar/compatible with the DC CPU.

 

[mastershakejb]

Yeah, both GPU's are powerVR, so that would make this pretty easy.

 

[mastershakejb]

Similar CPU architecture, same exact GPU (and better), and same sound. Looks to be the easiest of all the consoles they're trying to emulate so far, or at least make the most sense.

 

[mkinzler]

No sound is different and as told Super-H is total different from ARM.

 

[anexanhume]

Similar CPU architecture, same GPU, same sound.

No, same CPU architecture PHILOSOPHY, same GPU LINE, and DIFFERENT sound.

The fact that the GPU line is the same doesn't mean as much as you'd think because it doesn't look like coders will be able to directly access the hardware of the SGX core anyway.

 

[mastershakejb]

Different yeah, but similar, and considering that the GPU's are perfect matches, and both sound will be processed by ARM, looks to make sense to me that these would be some of the easiest ports.

 

[Shikaku]

RISC and ARM are very closely related aren't they?

It would be quite interesting if somebody was able to utilize the similar architectures of the ARM vs RISC (I don't think they are that similar) and the PowerVR chips in both the Dreamcast and the Pandora, and it would be at least playable, maybe even full speed. Actually I'd love it if someone made a good Dreamcast emulator as well. It would be a lot of work though, and it could be for naught.

I'm not very hopeful, but someone else should chime in to clarify these comparisons.

 

[anexanhume]

Different yeah, but similar, and considering that the GPU's are perfect matches, and both sound will be processed by ARM, looks to make sense to me that these would be some of the easiest ports.

Easiest ports? The games CANNOT be ported because no one has the source code. No source code, no game port. The emulator can be ported, but we have no guarantee of speed, and the similarity of architectures will not help nearly as much as you're suggesting.

Directly from ARM:
"ARM is a leader in microprocessor Intellectual Property. ARM designs and licenses fast, low-cost, power-efficient RISC processors, peripherals and ..."

 

[ben_monk]

The Dreamcast emulator, since the Dreamcast was built on an Arm processor. You could probly port Dreamcast's Quake III and many others almost directly onto the thing with little to no change in code. Remember all them sweet Dreamcast games? I bet they'd all be a snap. Crazy Taxi! Shenmue! Powerstone! Tony Hawk! so so many
In fact, I think it was just an Arm processor @ 200 mghz, nothin more. So it'd be a total snap.

Sorry MastershakeJB, the correct answer was Nintendo 64.

Legend of Zelda? Super Mario 64? Goldeneye? Perfect Dark? Conker's Bad Fur Day? All on a handheld!

 

[mkinzler]

Perhaps when the TA-Api is directly provided by the Graphics-API.
It would be a option to port Kallistios (KOS; an homebrew-library for dreamcast)

 

[Prophet]

Different yeah, but similar, and considering that the GPU's are perfect matches, and both sound will be processed by ARM, looks to make sense to me that these would be some of the easiest ports.

It's always entertaining when a non-dev who doesn't even understand the difference between emulation and porting calls something "easy."

It's like a watching a 6 year old talk about how easy it would be to do a brain transplant between his dog and his Dad, since animals all have brains. "All you need is a big enough knife" he says. "Easy!" Cute, but you wouldn't take him seriously.

 

[mastershakejb]

Easy in comparison to everything else.

 

[sebt3]

Easy in comparison to everything else.

Yeah, both GPU's are powerVR, so that would make this pretty easy.

Will you do it as this seems too easy for you ?

The bests emulators coders in this community said that it's very unlikely that it will run at a playable speed even with a large work.
This community have the best emulators coders/porter of the world.
But I'm willing to see you becoming a new reference in that matter.

I -->[]

 

[mastershakejb]

The architecture seems the closest of all the things to emulate. Seems to be the most similar in comparison to all other consoles. So instead of easy, maybe I should have said easiest.

 

[mechanizeddeath]

I think we should drop the DC and focus on fullspeed Speak & Spell emulation instead. I realize it will be hard, and probably push the Pandora to the limit even with frameskip, but I think it can be done! After all, TI made the Speak & Spell as well as the OMAP, so based on that alone I think fullspeed Speak & Spell should be possible. And with an actual keyboard, it would be FAR better than a POC emulator running on, say, the PSP.

And just think, if we're able to get it running, there's hope for Touch & Tell emulation on the "Pandora 2" in several years!