Short of buying a SPARC processor, what emulators are there? Thanks.
Pickup a second hand Power Mac G5 and you can run a fairly recent version of a mainstream OS (ie. OS X 10.5.8) and a modern development environment (Xcode 3.1.4).
You get a pretty fast, modern RISC machine running an OS that is still highly used (for the time being, I admit.)
You could also install Linux onto it if that would be better for your needs.
Probably a lot easier to find and cheaper than a SPARC machine.
You could also install the SPIM emulator for MIPS
On revisiting this, it's worth noting that nearly all modern smartphones run on ARM processors, which is short for 'Acorn RISC Machine'. So, an easy answer is 'Android Studio' or anything else targeting phone applications.
Similarly, there's a plethora of simple development boards available inexpensively, such as the BeagleBone Black and the Raspberry Pi, that also carry ARM processors.
Related
I am trying to make a use of QEMU in my embedded software development process. I think it will be useful for me to run my code without having to touch the hardware. Especially when the software is sitting in the user-space of Linux. Now, I am trying to get my head wrapped around the big concepts in QEMU.
At what point is QEMU virtualizing the hardware? Can I assume it virtualizes x86 when the host platform is also x86 with virtualization technology built into the processor?
In other words, can I assume QEMU is emulating the hardware when the target platform is not the same as host platform?
It's a general-purpose emulator software (type 2 hypervisor) which can use virtualization when the target and hosts are of the same architecture. In Linux you need to enable the KVM kernel module to be able to use the virtualization technology of the processor.
How is it that an executable can work on both AMD and Intel systems. Aren't AMD's and Intel's instruction sets different? How does the executable work on both? How exactly do they compile the files to work like that. And what exactly is the role of the OS in all this?
The only real difference between AMD and Intel at a given processor iteration is their implementation of the instruction sets they support. x86 (32 bit) and x64 (64 bit) are the two most common instruction sets for Intel and AMD processors.
The differences come in when Intel and AMD implement the instruction sets in their chips - but these implementations should have no effect on the instruction sets themselves. So if a program was compiled for an x64 processor, it can run on any processor that implements the x64 instruction set, which almost all modern Intel and AMD processors implement.
A great example of an implementation difference is the way that Intel likes to hyperthread cores whereas AMD likes to just add more cores. They do this for a multitude of reasons, such as power consumption and better concurrent processing, but it doesn't really impact if programs run because it doesn't change the instruction set. Another difference between Intel and AMD is the number of pipeline stages, which can affect speed.
Huge complexities come into play when operating systems are considered. Windows has huge libraries that programs have to use if they want to run on windows. The same goes for Linux and Mac OS X. Since these libraries aren't shared between operating systems, programs written on one operating system probably won't run on another.
Essentially these days, compilation is done for the OS not for hardware, as most hardware have universal protocols and/or tech, as mentioned above, x86 or x64 machine code/opcodes/instruction sets, some programmers do make software designed to run better on certain hardware i.e optimized for AMD or Intel etc...
but still have other versions for other hardware
mainly due to the OS you need to worry about bit length and or running OS
most compilers or software makers tend to compile out to shared machine code instead of manufacturer specific, it should be remember different people use the same things in a different way, the guys in MIT, may decide to code their own OS for their needs and may want to use advance specific features of Intel ins tsrcution set some people fully re do their own androids etc...
I am trying to learn linux porting, booting and other things and one thing that specially comes is platform. What is it
a cpu
a board
an overall term as board + cpu
like when we say platform specific code do we mean architecture(of cpu) specific code ?
The answer depends on context. If you are porting Linux, the platform from that point-of-view is the hardware you are porting it to. If you are writing applications to run on Linux on that hardware, then the platform is *both) the OS and the hardware.
Furthermore if you were targeting a GUI framework such as KDE or Gnome, that that would be "part of the "platform" too; or if you were running Java code, the platform would include the JVM.
Essentially it is the stuff that is already there that the code needs to pre-exist in order to run the code. Generally a platform might consist of layers; the "platform" as such comprises of whatever layers exist below that which you might be developing at that time.
I have a few programs I'd really like to test on Windows 8 for ARM. I don't have any Windows 8 ARM hardware though. Is it possible to install Windows 8 in some kind of ARM emulator or some such?
Yes, I know that if it compiles on WinRT it is suppose to "just work", but I'd really like to test it not only to see if it works, but also relative performance(as much can be guessed from an emulator)
There is no way, how to start you x86 PC in an "ARM mode", or launch Simulator in ARM mode. WinRT was designed to bridge the differences or these platforms so you don't need to worry about it and you can just develop. All I can think of right now is try to contact local Microsoft representative in your area - if they have any ARM tablet for testing, they might help you in this, but again if your app is not really flawed or computing power demanding, don't worry about the ARM platform :)
This now appears to be sorta possible (haven't tested yet) with the new App Ceritification Kit for WinRT, which appears to include ARM emulation.
EDIT: This isn't an emulator, it will only run on an ARM WinRT device. I guess there is no ARM emulator, despite that page mentioning ARM and emulation
As i know java programs are able to run on any Operating System.
and there are JVM's for any kind of machines.
I need a JVM that runs on my PC stand alone, and not on my OS (windows or any thing else).
I mean a JVM that acts like a boot, instead of the OS boot
i searched for all versions of JVM on "www.java.com/en/download/manual.jsp", but i did not get the suitable JVM.
the following link helped me a little but that was not enough
http://java-virtual-machine.net/other.html#jvm
my PC CPU is AMD Athlon(tm) 64X2 Dual Core Processor 5200 + 2.69 GHz
any body can help me to find the suitable jvm version ?!
Sure, have a look at JRockit Virtual Edition. As I understand it it's basically a micro kernel especially tailored for the JRockit VM.
From this page:
Java without the OS: JRockit Virtual Edition (VE)
Am I the only one that's never heard of this before? The Oracle JRockit team is looking at eliminating the OS from the stack required to run Java. This product will be called JRockit VE (not out yet)
JavaOS
Good lucking getting hold of it, though, it's nothing more than a historical curiosity.
There are two JVMs that I am aware of, which have this property:
The Fiji WM: http://www.fiji-systems.com/index.html
According to http://rtjava.blogspot.com/2009/11/new-real-time-vm-was-born-fiji-vm.html it also runs on bare metal.
The next possibility is JNode: an open source operating system where most parts are written in Java (the rest in assembly): http://www.jnode.org/
JNode is still beta, though.
No.
There was an idea of making a machine that could run a JVM as an actual machine (non virtualized), similiar to LISP machines, but that idea never took off...
You need a host OS to run a JVM.
Googling "java real machine" might give you some interesting articles.
I've found two: one from 2004, talking about how such a machine could be built and another one, talking about how JVM runs as a real machine on hardware such as mobile devices.
Still, no dice with a plain PC.