• Paladin of the Pegasos
    Paladin of the Pegasos
    Intuition
    Posts: 1110 from 2013/5/24
    From: Nederland
    Quote:

    takemehomegrandma wrote:
    Quote:

    Intuition wrote:

    the hardware x86 emulator inside the 835.


    I don't think this is correct?

    Maybe I missed something in the article (and/or elsewhere), but

    1. "hardware X86 emulator" (your words) and "X86 hardware emulator" (the article) is a difference in semantics that actually matters

    2. JIT translation in SW makes sense. A JIT is a program that can look through a binary stream ahead of execution and "recompile" and optimize it to native binaries (using the entire palette of available native registers etc). Can a CPU do the same thing as efficient at runtime? JIT in SW is a proven concept. "Built-in emulation" in CPU's are AFAIK not. SW JIT's can be updated easily, CPU silicon not so, and the investments needed to make a CPU design is kind of huge, measured by any wallet.

    3. "Microsoft released a video showing off how the current Snapdragon 820 runs Windows 10 Enterprise, via its emulator." The emulator is obviously already running, meaning it's SW (most certainly JIT).

    4. The author of that article is perhaps a bit confused himself, mentioning Transmeta, etc for no obvious reason? Wasn't Transmeta more of an op-code thing than something comparable to a modern SW JIT?




    I think it's more likely that the 835 has added instructions that aid the software emulation than and actual "hardware emulator" in the vein of the Crusoe.
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