PERQs for emulation (was: "Real" emulation)

From: Stan Sieler <ss_at_allegro.com>
Date: Tue Jan 9 13:16:34 2001

Re:
> Surely anyone should be able to realize that the best machine for an
> emulator is a PERQ, which, if certain AMD bit-slice processor chips
> were still being produced, we could all build. The system is user
> microprogammable, and some code for emulation, e.g., 6502 uP, IIRC,
> already exists. More than one type of emulation in microcode can be
> run at the same time, so, for example, one could be running the Accent
> OS with it's Sapphire window manager, while also running other

I beg to differ :)

The Burroughs B1700 / B1800 / B1900 would be better to use...
they ran "pico-code", which "simultaneously" (via time-slicing)
interpreted multiple microcodes, each of which was running some process
or other. Thus, COBOL code was running on an "ideal" microcode for
COBOL (Burroughs shipped several different COBOL microcodes...the compiler
chose the appropriate one based on your code (e.g., how many variables
you had, vs. other concerns)), and SPL (?) ran on it's own microcode, etc.

The Burroughs B1700 was circa 1974, IIRC.



Stan Sieler sieler_at_allegro.com
www.allegro.com/sieler/wanted/index.html www.allegro.com/sieler
Received on Tue Jan 09 2001 - 13:16:34 GMT