[Info-vax] Running OpenVMS native on x86 . . .

[Bill Pedersen]

-----Original Message-----
From: info-vax-bounces at rbnsn.com [mailto:info-vax-bounces at rbnsn.com] On
Behalf Of Keith Parris
> With the port from VAX to Alpha, and then again from Alpha to Itanium, the
OS was ported along with compilers and layered software products, and a tool
(VEST, then AEST) for translating (at least most) binary images to native
code was 
> provided. Then ISVs, VARs, and customers were left to their own devices to
port their code to the platform, given the tools provided.

> It might be possible to learn from the way architectural transitions were
handled in other cases in our industry. For example, when Apple went from
PowerPC to Intel x86 CPUs for the Mac, from what I've read, the transition
was made 
> fairly seamless for users; they could run PowerPC applications on the new
platform without modification. One might imagine a capability where a VAX,
Alpha, or Itanium image might run, unmodified, on an x86 platform, if a
similar 
> capability were implemented for an x86 architectural transition for VMS.

> To me, this would probably solve most of the problems previously
experienced with 3rd-party applications which never get ported, programs
which didn't happen to work with VEST/AEST, or where the software vendor
went out of 
>  business.

Well, actually there was some precedence for this sort of "wrapper"
environment on the ill-fated Alpha based Windows NT implementation.
Unmodified Windows x86  applications could be run on the Alpha Windows NT
environment.

Given the experience people have had over the years this might make more
sense.

Of course there will always be the issue of performance.   But I would
expect the performance of the VAX applications should far exceed any "real"
VAX.

Bill Pedersen

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