[Info-vax] Real time performance, was: Re: VSI: "Official 8.4-1H1 Launch"

[JF Mezei]

On 15-06-08 13:28, David Froble wrote:

> Ok, yeah, I think I'm understanding a bit more.  Having to support HW 
> devices can be interesting.  I'd guess that since the VM supplied 
> devices are software, they might be easier to work with.  Maybe a lot 
> less flaky?

Think about debugging your early boot code before VMS has booted
sufficiently to provide its own diagnostic debugging tools.

In the past, they used hardware emulators for Alpha for instance.

But with x86, there is plenty of hardware already available, but harder
to debug if you are booting "raw" from hardware.  If you have a VM that
provides some means to evaluate what your primitive boot code is doing,
then this provides debugging tools you wouldn't have if booting natively
on raw hardware.