VMWare 4.0 has been released and there is a demo version available to download. In other similar news, get to know QEMU, an x86 processor emulator. Its purpose is to run x86 Linux processes on non-x86 Linux architectures such as PowerPC or ARM. By using dynamic translation it achieves a reasonnable speed while being easy to port on new host CPUs. Its main goal is to be able to launch the Wine Windows API emulator on non-x86 CPUs.
VMWare 4 Released; WINE on non-x86 hardware?
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
Why is no one bringing out PowerPC emulation for x86? I see lots and lots of emulators for Motorola 68k but none for PowerPC!
With Microsoft now owning Virtual PC and Apple trying to free it self from Microsoft, perhaps they should looking into getting this on OS X.
Something like QEMU +WineX (www.transgaming.com) should actually make other platforms a lot more appealing than old Intel/X86. Power series, here I come.
While MS have given no indications that they are going to kill Virtual PC for Mac this could be useful, particularly if they can get it allow WINE, and therefore Crossover Office, on PowerPC. Which should remove a lot of Microsoft’s ability to pull Office completely. An act that we all realise would basically kill Apple. It would be also good for Apple simply to give the project help for it’s own sake as they do know how to build a good (68K) emulator. Even if this will raise all the old Apple is going to switch to x86 rumour (again).
On another not is it just me or does this sound a lot like what Transmeta do with Code Morphing in there Crueso chip to let it run x86 (and other) instructions.
If one was running Linux on an Alpha box, would wine run NT4 Alpha binaries?
isnt it the same fabrice of LZEXE fame??
lzexe0.91.. sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet!
The new VMware is pretty cool. Many games now run pretty good. I succelfully ran Jazz Jackrabbit 2 and StarCraft (without X running in 8bit mode) in it.
I may be being stupid again, but isn’t is at least _theoretially_ possible to de-compile an x86 app down to what amounts to very obfuscated C code, and then re-compile it for PPC, or vice versa? Even if it used the Win* libs, winelib could/would provide most, if not all, of the needed functionality, provided it *could* be ported to another archetecture. If WINE had a dynamic recompiler (I _think_ that’s the correct term), instead of just emulating x86 opcodes or using the host system’s built-in x86 CPU, it could fairly easily be ported over to the Mac, with a lot less of a speed hit.
This could also work for projects such as BasilistII. Instead of Emulating a 68k or PPC chip, it could just re-compile everything as it loads, so that it used the naitive system’s processor, rather than an emulated one. It’d be dog slow the first time you ran any given binary or library, but after it’s re-compiled, and probably byte-swapped, too (Little-endian vs Big-endian,) you’d probably gain a big speed increase in the end, though I have nothing but theory to back that up.
And another point: I _know_ for a fact that it’s possible to at least _emulate_ a PPC on an x86. Unless I’m severely mistaken, one of the capabilities of any Turing-complete computer is the ability to emulate _any_ other Turing-complete computer, in software.
Wine Is Not an Emulator.
Do a websearch or start at emaculation.com ( no it isn’t p0rn )
PPC emulation is available but the fastest emulator – which costs a LOT – is only capable of emulating a PPC G3 running at 20mhz. The reason being the PPC instruction set is apparently far more complicated than x86…
there is allegedly ( vaporware ) an emulator pending from microcode solutions – but the founder of that firm has a reputation for a creative approach to honesty and nothing he says should be taken as truth without independant verification. Some reports suggest it would have needed a PPC card for use on a PC anyway ( yes, a G3 on a PCI card ! )
Remember this emulator?
http://fwb.com/html/realpc.html
A quote from them I found on Macnn.
When Microsoft purchased Virtual PC, we decided it was time to re-release an updated version of Real PC & SoftWindows 98 (and shortly XP etc). We had to discontinue the product as the agreement was with Connectix, not Microsoft. If you would like to update your Real PC to a faster, better and more powerful version, give us 30 days to finish the software and you’ll be glad you waited.
You seem confused. This does not allow Wine to work on MacOS X, it must be run on Linux/PPC. Porting Wine to MacOS would be a huge amount of work and will probably never happen. Apple will have to stick with Virtual PC for now.
>I may be being stupid again, but isn’t is at least
>_theoretially_ possible to de-compile an x86 app down to what
>amounts to very obfuscated C code, and then re-compile it for
>PPC, or vice versa?
Maybe so, but there’s no guarantee that the generated code
would be portable between processor families 🙂
Jon
There is also bintrans, a i386-to-ppc and ppc-to-alpha binary translator:
http://www.complang.tuwien.ac.at/schani/bintrans/
> PPC emulation is available but the fastest emulator – which
> costs a LOT – is only capable of emulating a PPC G3 running
> at 20mhz. The reason being the PPC instruction set is
> apparently far more complicated than x86…
The PowerPC architecture uses 32 general purpose registers compared to 8 for x86. Most instructions receive 3 or more operands, usualy 2 sources, 1 target and sometimes a modifier, whereas x86 instruction most often have only 2 operands.
These alone will introduce a huge overhead during emulation.
[This could also work for projects such as BasilistII. Instead of Emulating a 68k or PPC chip, it could just re-compile everything as it loads, so that it used the naitive system’s processor, rather than an emulated one. It’d be dog slow the first time you ran any given binary or library, but after it’s re-compiled, and probably byte-swapped, too (Little-endian vs Big-endian,) you’d probably gain a big speed increase in the end, though I have nothing but theory to back that up.]
That’s precisely what FX!32 for the Alpha did when running Intel apps. Yes, it is possible, and very difficult.