Xerox Alto emulator(s)

From: Eric Smith <eric_at_brouhaha.com>
Date: Sun Jul 16 19:24:05 2000

> I was just thinking...Would it be possible in 2000 to write a Xerox Alto
> emulator and SmallTalk OS (assuming binaries are available). Is there any

Writing a simulator is certainly possible, but I don't see why you'd want
to write a Smalltalk OS. I mean, if you want to write a new OS, you might
as well target it for modern hardware.

> What makes it difficult to write an emulator for this machine?

It doesn't have a single instruction set. Each language/environment uses
a different instruction set implemented by different microcode.

Simulating the microcode level shouldn't be terribly difficult, but not
many people have sufficient information to do it.
Received on Sun Jul 16 2000 - 19:24:05 BST