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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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