GP32 Strange...

[AlexW]

I have just bought (not got it yet) a GP32 and browsing thru the forums here and many asks for a emu and often the reply is that the ARM CPU is too slow and so on and so forth... I saw a question if it would be possible to make a "DOS Emu" for the GP32 and the reply was no it's to complicated...
When I had my Amiga 500+ (3 Mb memory 2 Chip, 1 Fast) I had a PC emulator wich ran i386 code (no co-pro code), with this I installed Windows 3.11 WFW and it worked... it was slow but you could use it... My Amiga 500+ had a about 1 MIPS estimated and the ARM9 at 150 Mhz is rated 165 MIPS (yes the 68000 is CISC and ARM9 is RISC), the Amiga had a couple of co processors but they did not do any great speed ups in this PC emulator... PC VGA uses chunky pixel format and the Amiga 500+ uses Bitplane (which takes ages to convert so framrate was not anygood)...

Anyway... It seems that everybody thinks the GP32 is so slow...
Yes it slow compared to 3200 Mhz P4 but a 140-165 MIPS RISC could to wonderful things...

 

[generalnmx]

Yes, a DOS emulator is indeed possible. However, it's restricted to programs that ONLY use DOS system calls. Otherwise, we'd need a x86 emulator.

 

[mithris]

You still need a x86 emulator, since all calls are SWI's.
But yeah, i think it's possible to make a PC emu, perhaps emulate a 80286 or smth atleast.
It's not the same amount of tricky hardware in a old PC, a simple VGA card, and in some cases a SoundBlaster card.


---
mithris

 

[AlexW]

I surfed the web for more info and found a couple of things...
There are a couple of x86 emulators for different processors Vmware, Plex86, Bochs, VirtualPC and so on... I read som info on Bochs... and it was dead slow...
on a PII 400 Mhz (estimated MIPS? 800?) the emulated PC is about 1-2 MIPS...
http://systems.cs.colorado.edu/ComputerArc...view/bochs1.ppt

A4000/040 25Mhz estimated 25-30 MIPS emulates a i8086 PC 25 Mhz (estimated MIPS 1-2?) With dynamic compilation... PCTask was written in 1996-97 (i think)

http://members.ozemail.com.au/~pctask/speed.html
The latest version of this emu could also run i486 code...

To sum it up either BOCH's is not optimized at all and not written with speed in mind at all... or/and the PCTask program on the Amiga is written really good and is one of the fastest emulation around...

Something is not right here...

 

[Rico]

Bochs was written with compatibility and emulation quality in mind, not speed.

Plex86 is a lot more suitable, but these have all been looked at before when people last got interested in x86 emulation. Unfortunately there's been no interest in porting or coding anything, so nothing is likely to be released any time soon (or at all).

 

[Robster]

Plex86 is a virtual machine, which means it can run several operating systems at once. However, it doesn't emulate the x86 processor so it can only run on x86 hardware.

Bochs actually emulates the processor, so it can run on non-x86 machines but it's much slower.

I reckon dosbox (http://dosbox.sourceforge.net/news.php?show_news=1) is a good bet, I'd like to have a look at porting it but at my present rate of progress it'll be about 2010 before I get around to it

Any takers?

 

[NiN^_^NiN]

the last we heard about x86 emulation on the pc

dosbox was the best so far but i could be wrong

h34r:

 

[CaptainFuture]

Hi there

I really don't want to be annoying and I know that this suggestion sounds far to simple, but the source code for dosbox was written in C++ and I am wondering how much time it would take to recompile it with advdevkit/parkkit32?

Another question, that has been buggin me for ages is the "EXT." port on the GP32. Is that a standarised plug like USB/PS2/Serial? Because it must be possible to connect (without soldering or upgrading the Firmware) to connect a PDA keyboard to the GP32. I am sure that there are many people who would want keyboard features and which would make a Dos emulator to play Police Quest 1/ Space Quest 1/... possible.

I think a DOS emulator is a very good thing and was one of the first things I asked about when I got my GP32.