Writing emulators [Was: Re: VCF PNW 2018: Pictures!]

[Paul Koning]

> On Feb 20, 2018, at 2:22 PM, Pontus Pihlgren via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
> 
> On Mon, Feb 19, 2018 at 06:36:13PM -0600, Adrian Stoness via cctalk wrote:
>> whats invovled in makin an emulator?
>> i have a chunk of stuff for the phillips p1000
> 
> I would say it depends a lot on how complex your target machine is. But 
> in essense you will have to write code for each device you wish to 
> emulate mapping their functionality over to your host machine, the one 
> running the emulator.
> 
> As a minimum you will write code for the CPU and some sort of output 
> device, such as a serial console. 

I would add: unless you have a very strange situation (which is unlikely with a Philips machine), SIMH is the foundation to use.  There are other simulators out there built on other foundations, and they work fine.  But SIMH has an excellent structure and takes care of a whole lot of work, allowing you to concentrate on the actual technical substance of emulating a specific machine.

	paul