Re: Disk ][ Launcher (was: Late night musings...)

[nparker@cie-2.uoregon.edu (Neil Parker)]

In article <504ruq$orh@news.bconnex.net> jefbla@bconnex.net (Jeff Blakeney)
writes:
>[...]
>This is where emulating a piece of hardware, like the Mockingboard,
>could also be used.  Emulate the hardware of the Disk ][ controller
>and any RWTS routine that accesses the hardware can be handled without
>a problem.
>
>Well, there is still the problem of writing the code the emulate the
>hardware but I believe this has already been done and source is
>publicly available.  This is what the emulators on other platforms use
>so why not us?

You can't just emulate one piece of hardware--you have to emulate the *whole*
*computer*.  That's how the Apple II emulators on the PC and Mac work--they
emulate the processor itself, and all the hardware connected to it.

This is a lot of work, and it takes a pretty hefty host processor to do it
at a reasonable speed.  An Apple II emulator running on an Apple II is
probably possible, but I doubt you'd want to use it--it would almost
certainly run many times slower than a real Apple II.

               - Neil Parker
-- 
Neil Parker, nparker@{cie-2,cie}.uoregon.edu, http://cie-2.uoregon.edu/~nparker

     "I was going to be a neo-deconstructivist but Mom wouldn't let me."
                                     -- Calvin and Hobbes, 7/13/1995