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Re: PPC code possible in future of Executor?



>>>>> "Jeffrey" == Jeffrey A Halverson <halv0019@gold.tc.umn.edu> writes:

    Jeffrey> First off, the ALPHA-DEC Linux machine appears to be able
    Jeffrey> to run everything except X-Windows right now...  X should
    Jeffrey> come real soon now from what I hear...  Once ARDI finds
    Jeffrey> its way out of debt, do you think you'll find a way to
    Jeffrey> compile a LInux-ALPHA version?  I'd love to see what kind
    Jeffrey> of magic executor could do with 266Mhz!!!

We actually had the old black and white Executor running on an Alpha
that DEC kindly loaned to us.  Although I really like the Alpha
architecture, it turns out to be more difficult to emulate a 68k on an
Alpha than on an x86.

    Jeffrey> Secondly, with Apple switching thier marketing towards
    Jeffrey> the PowerPC (PowerMac), more and more apps are being
    Jeffrey> shipped with PPC versions.  Will future (post 2.0)
    Jeffrey> versions be able to run these?

Yes, we expect that we'll need to implement PowerPC emulation at some
point.

    Jeffrey> Do you expect better speed, or worse speed on these
    Jeffrey> emulations?

That's a good question.  I'd guess better speed, because a load/store
instruction set like the PPC is easier to emulate.

    Jeffrey> Thidly-- and I know this probably is a bit dreamy-- What
    Jeffrey> is the possibility of being able to run Macintosh Apps
    Jeffrey> w/o the entire "Macintosh" window?  In other words, just
    Jeffrey> run a single application on the X-windows screen without
    Jeffrey> all the "browser" stuff?  It would be nice (but certainly
    Jeffrey> not very necessary) to have the Mac Apps run better
    Jeffrey> integrated with existing X-windows applications...  (ala
    Jeffrey> WINE, where you can have the -desktop option, or just
    Jeffrey> have it run in its own window)

There's a good chance we'll be able to do that, but it's a fairly low
priority.

-Mat


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