Re: [Qemu-devel] [PATCH] Z80 emulation updated again!

[Andreas Färber]

Am 21.12.2010 um 03:47 schrieb John Williams:

> This is a really interesting discussion which goes to the heart of  
> QEMU's identity.

Right...

> A contemporary emulation and virtualisation platform (modern  
> embedded, KVM etc)?  An emulation platform for retro-computing  
> nostalgia?  How about as a unifying platform for MAME?

The way I see it, QEMU has shifted from the "packaged" desktop  
emulation to a much more diversified emulation platform, say, a  
library of qdev devices of which boards are pieced together. So if  
someone contributes one particular machine, its devices can likely  
find reuse for other boards and archs as well. In the PReP case, for  
example the 40p's i82378.

In the case at hands, I was seeing possible reuse for target-z80/ bits  
beyond nostalgia.

QEMU can be a backend for many use cases as long as cycle-accurateness  
is not needed. The (lack of) frontends are its weekness though, which  
I guess makes it unsuitable for gaming. Game emulators on the contrary  
often oppose attempts to add more serious emulation features (e.g.,  
LPT printing support in DOSBox).

Cheers,
Andreas