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To: Nate Williams <nate@mt.sri.com>
cc: hackers@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject: Re: DOS emulation (was Re: Networking in PCEMU (1/2)) 
Date: Fri, 25 Oct 1996 16:35:46 -0400
From: James da Silva <jds@TracerTech.COM>
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Hi Nate,

 > > > Once _that_ works, we can do some _serious_ DOS emulation.
 > > 
 > > Which only works on Intel platforms.  8-(.
 > 
 > Yep.  To expect more than that is foolishness.  Insignia software has
 > spents *millions* of dollars on their x86 emulation software, and it
 > still isn't very impressive.  Expecting that a single-individual or
 > group of individuals could produce something that is even on par with
 > their product is silly.

The commercial Unix vendors have spent *millions* of dollars on their
Unix OSes.  Expecting that a group of individuals could produce
something that is even on par with their OS products is silly. :-)

 > You'd have better luck building 'translator' code that changes the x86
 > opcodes into native instructions on each platform, which DEC and IBM
 > have done.

How about JIT translation of frequently-executed code from within the
emulator?  Does Insignia do that?

Jaime
...............................................................................
: jds@tracertech.com /   Tracer Technologies, Inc.   \ Stand on my shoulders, :
:   James da Silva  / Mass Storage Software Solutions \    not on my toes.    :