New 68k-JIT for ARM in development

[Gorf]

Michal Schulz startet to work on a new 68k-JIT for ARM.
The goal is an inclusion in his AROS big-endian RasPi port.

I wrote you once that in the future there will be a possibility to use m68k binaries with AROS on RasPi, and I really mean it. So, few months ago I've started to look around for any available m68k emulators. And you know what? There are plenty of them. Hurray? No. They are either slow interpreters written eons ago as a proof of concept, or GPL licensed. Even though I find GPL ok and use it myself from time to time, I find it too restrictive in this case. Besides I wanted to try something new

his announcement:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/dromaiidae-emu-24407987

the new Emu68 is on Github - in its very early stage:
https://github.com/michalsc/Emu68

[Romanujan]

Well, despite I'm not really AROS fan, I hope he will succeed The so called 'NG' really needs some reasonable hardware availability.

[Gorf]

Not sure if we should call AROS "NG".
It also runs on classic Amigas and on Vampire (beta).

But no matter how we call it, this JIT should help bringing a better classic experience to AROS on the RasPi.

[terminills]

Originally Posted by Gorf

Michal Schulz startet to work on a new 68k-JIT for ARM.
The goal is an inclusion in his AROS big-endian RasPi port.



his announcement:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/dromaiidae-emu-24407987

the new Emu68 is on Github - in its very early stage:
https://github.com/michalsc/Emu68

He's posted a few updates.

https://www.patreon.com/posts/always-remember-24683131

[mschulz]

In case you forgot me - the project is still in work and there have been tons of updates recently.

Some benchmarks: https://www.patreon.com/posts/some-benchmark-31277735
Small video of RasPi2 booting directly into m68k emulation: https://www.patreon.com/posts/in-case-you-want-31318081

The Emu68 works in bare metal on the raspberry without any underlying operating system. It consists of the emulation core only, everything else will have to be done on the m68k side (The text printed on the screen (video above) is m68k code already).

Supervisor mode is not done yet, few normal m68k instructions are missing, fpu is missing (yet).

[Marlon_]

You could essentially run an Amithlon like setup on this, as long as there's Pi drivers written for AmigaOS 3.* to access the periferals. AROS 68k on this would essentially be just that. Being able to run OS3.* system friendly applications on Raspberry Pi while taking advantage of the hardware it has.

[x-vision]

Originally Posted by Marlon_

You could essentially run an Amithlon like setup on this, as long as there's Pi drivers written for AmigaOS 3.* to access the periferals. AROS 68k on this would essentially be just that. Being able to run OS3.* system friendly applications on Raspberry Pi while taking advantage of the hardware it has.

But this will run MUCH faster and will be able to run non system friendly apps, demos and games

[Romanujan]

How about running this on MiSTer? Would it be possible to utilize it’s chipset implementation in FPGA?

Is the MMU support planned?

[Marlon_]

Originally Posted by x-vision

But this will run MUCH faster and will be able to run non system friendly apps, demos and games

It will NOT be able to run non system friendly software. Where the hell did you get that from? This is a 68k CPU+FPU emulator, not a full fledged Amiga computer emulator.

Originally Posted by Romanujan

How about running this on MiSTer? Would it be possible to utilize it’s chipset implementation in FPGA?

Is the MMU support planned?

Does the MiSTer have an ARM CPU?

[vulture]

I believe he's assuming that it'll be incorporated to an emulator like uae4arm, which is not impossible, but it's not a given either.

[Marlon_]

Originally Posted by vulture

I believe he's assuming that it'll be incorporated to an emulator like uae4arm, which is not impossible, but it's not a given either.

That's not what this thread is about though.

The Emu68 is a standalone software that can run barebones on a Raspberry Pi. There's no plan for incorporation in uae4arm. However, it is opensource, so if someone is able to do it, they could certainly try to incorporate it.

[Marlon_]

Read for yourself

[vulture]

I know, I was just guessing why he said that.

[Marlon_]

Originally Posted by vulture

I know, I was just guessing why he said that.

I know. I’m mainly giving the facts for him.

[Romanujan]

Originally Posted by Marlon_

Does the MiSTer have an ARM CPU?

Yes. MiSTer is basically a Terasic DE10-Nano board (Cyclon V FPGA + dual core ARM Cortex-A9) with some daughter-boards.

[Marlon_]

Originally Posted by Romanujan

Yes. MiSTer is basically a Terasic DE10-Nano board (Cyclon V FPGA + dual core ARM Cortex-A9) with some daughter-boards.

Then it probably could work and be used as a CPU core, if someone takes the time to try to implement it. I don't think it's on Schulz timeline for this software though as the focus is AROS 68k + RasPi.

It is open source though, so anyone with knowledge of how to interface between the FPGA and the ARM core can attempt this. Perhaps even the MNT ZZ9000 could utilize this in the future.

[skan]

This is damn cool! I'm eager to see how this project evolves.

In simple words, how does it compare to this http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=90316 ?

[Marlon_]

Originally Posted by skan

This is damn cool! I'm eager to see how this project evolves.

In simple words, how does it compare to this http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=90316 ?

That one is using code from another project, this one is written from scratch, so it wouldn't conflict with the AROS license.

That one also emulates Amiga specific chips (slower), while this only emulates the 68k cpu (faster).

So to sum up: this will be more like Amithlon =Only OS friendly software, but way faster.
While the other one will be more like UAE running bare metal = All software, slower.

I can't speak for how the internals work between the both. Only real world testing and benchmarking would suffice to know what's better.

[Marlon_]

Also, bloodline and mschulz has communicated about this stuff before: http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=96407

Specific comment touching this subject: http://eab.abime.net/showpost.php?p=1306277&postcount=4

[skan]

Thanks for the info, now I have a clearer picture!