Nitros9 on Intel: (was) [Coco] COCO4 Emulator

[James Hrubik]

I can understand emulation if all you want to do is mimic a pre- 
existing machine for which it is no longer possible to get new  
genuine replacement components.  MOTO no longer makes the processor.   
The idea of producing a CC2 or CC3 in FPGA is not, strictly speaking,  
an emulator project.  It is a replacement hardware project, and would  
be a hardware successor to the CoCo line.  In implementing such a  
project, it would simply have to be determined if the purpose was to  
clone the 8/16-bit processor, or to move on to bigger stuff.

Strictly speaking, though, you cannot emulate a machine which does  
not exist.  CC3s emulate CC2s (we just don't think of it that way)  
except when running CC3-only software that requires the GIME, and  
they are successor machines.  Tandy never made a CC4; ergo, you  
cannot emulate one without actually making one first.

That is why I made those comments.  Think about this : given a new  
Taurus, how would you emulate an early Model T Ford?  Would you put a  
dummy crank on the front, and a dummy fuel tank over the engine, and  
dummy levers on the dash?  Do you really want to emulate the Model T,  
or would you rather build a replica?  If you want to emulate the fun  
of owning and driving a Model T, but have only a Taurus to work with,  
how do you approach the problem?

Do you buy a fiberglass Model T carcass and stuff it with the Taurus  
guts?  Eliminate the starter and fuel pump and electrical switches?   
Is a Renaissance Fair without rats and plague a real emulation?  
(sorry about that, Allen <G>).

That is why I said that I saw a logical move forward in porting  
Nitros9 to the Intel chipset.  To me the fun of a CoCo was the fact  
that I could play with it and in my own simple way understand what I  
was doing as I exercised my creativity.  I suppose I could do that  
with Linux now, but the nostalgia of doing it with an OS that in its  
original form actually ran on a real CoCo would be a neat thing.  It  
would turn an Intel box into a CoCo successor without any credit to  
Gates & Company -- and with care, any software that ran on a CoCo in  
OS-9 could be ported directly (and maybe even most of the RS Ware as  
well), and you would not be emulating it, but actually running a port  
of it.  And I don't doubt, that, if the source were GPL, there would  
be people to make it fit every brand of box that ran the Intel chipset.

To me, it makes sense, but then again, I'm a senile old fart with a  
warped sense of humor who thinks the idea of emulating a non-existent  
machine is funny.

On May 6, 2006, at 3:17 AM, James Jones wrote:

> James Hrubik wrote:
>> So what is the point of emulation?
>
> Emulators have several purposes:
>
> 1. Running software for older computers--back in the days of IBM  
> big iron, they'd provide an emulator for earlier computers on later  
> ones (and now there's the Hercules project that lets you emulate  
> the 360 and its descendants).
>
> 2. Adding debugging functionality. It's nice to be able to hit a  
> function key and be switched to a screen that shows a disassembly  
> of the code being run along with a display of the machine state,  
> with the ability to dump memory and stack contents, etc.
>
> 3. Debugging hardware that doesn't (yet) exist, so you can be  
> (more) sure of your design before committing it to hardware.
>
> If there's ever going to be a real CoCo 4, an emulator is going to  
> be invaluable for saving money and time when verifying the design.
>
> 	James
>
> -- 
> Coco mailing list
> Coco at maltedmedia.com
> http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/coco

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