[Info-vax] HPE Integrity emulator

[John Dallman]

In article <url9aa$3beds$1 at dont-email.me>,
clubley at remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP (Simon Clubley) wrote:

> Is this a full-system emulator or just a CPU emulator ?
> 
> [From what I can tell from the webpage, it appears to be another CPU
> emulator only, just like Ski.]

A bit more than just a CPU emulator, but not a full-system emulator. From
the documentation PDF:

* ISA library
  A library that implements the IA64 instruction set.
* ELF library
  A library that implements the support for IA64 binary executables
  ((this does not handle dynamic linking at present)). 
* KRN library
  A library that implements the support for Linux compatible IA64 
  system calls ((as far as Kernel 2.4)).
* MAC library
  A library that implements the support for detailed architectural 
  simulation.
* ECU library
  A library that implements the support for special architectures.

If the documentation is correct, then making an IA64 VMS emulator for
x96-64 VMS would require, at least:

* Extending the ELF library to cope with dynamically linked executables
  and libraries. 
* Creating a system call translation layer for VMS. This would be a lot
  easier with the VMS source available.
* Fixing bugs that doubtless exist in the libraries. 
* Getting the instruction set library to run at a reasonable speed.

John