Re: [Qemu-devel] A dream of mine: the ability to run m68k NeXT applications

[Eagle]

On May 19, 2009, at 16:18, Jamie Lokier wrote:
> Eagle wrote:
> > Greetings, all.
> >
> > I have a dream.  Well, several actually, but two that are applicable
> > here.
> >
> > The first is: I am interested in having the ability to run m68k NeXT
> > applications.  There are potentially several ways to do this, but two
> > come to mind:
> > 1- a CPU-only emulator that runs on i386 NeXTSTEP/OPENSTEP, similar  
> > to
> > what Apple used during the transition from m68k to PPC.
> > 2- a full-blown NeXT hardware emulator.
> >
> > I am interested in this because I have some m68k-only NeXT
> > applications that I want to be able to run.
>
> CPU emulation is quite easy.
>
> The bits which are hard work are system call translation and hardware
> emulation, unfortunately at least one is required to run apps for a
> different OS :-)

What I have is some m68k binaries for the black-hardware version of  
NeXTSTEP.  They'll run in the m68k version of either NeXTSTEP or  
OPENSTEP.  Unfortunately all I have to run them on (realistically  
speaking, that is - I still own some NeXTs) is the x86 versions of  
NeXTSTEP and OPENSTEP.

<sarcasm>So, it's not as simple as emulating the CPU huh?</sarcasm> :)

I don't know how hard it is to do what I'm asking.  Clearly the CPU  
needs to be emulated, which has obviously been done a million times  
before.  I just don't know what else is involved, and I thought the  
QEMU team might be my best bet at finding an answer.  I'm hoping  
beyond hope that someone here will have the knowledge and the desire  
to undertake a task such as this. :D

Thanks.