Back to home page

DOS ain't dead

Forum index page

Log in | Register

Search:  
Back to the forum
Board view  Mix view

libx86 / Alpha (Announce)

posted by Rugxulo Homepage, Usono, 10.04.2012, 00:26

> > Look up libx86 sometime... ;-)
> > Linux folks aren't as unconcerned about realmode instructions as you might think.
>
> For what? Doing a few "detection" calls during startup on a minimal
> emulator?
>
> I used it when I still had a bunch of desktop powermacs.
>
> I'm not sure if it is still used much.
>
> The fact that that page mentions alpha (which is essentially dead since
> before 2000) says enough....
LRMI's last release seems to have been in 2005 (though with a very tiny change in CVS in 2008). libx86 copyright says 2006. FreeBSD 6.4 (2008) was last to support Alpha, as you probably already know.

I've never used an Alpha, and supposedly they have a lot of minor variations in their models, so it's not super easy to support them all. And of course it's not mass-produced anymore, esp. since DEC long ago folded / sold it / got bought out. Circa 1992 until 2004 ain't too bad, though, for a 64-bit RISC processor topping out at approx. 1.3 Ghz (and thus surpassed in performance by latest x86 cpus). I don't even think GCC properly supports it anymore, or it doesn't look like it's a big priority for them, at least. (And of course Win2K RC1 was last to officially support it, I think, but Compaq wasn't too interested in paying for it.) There are a few Alpha emulators, but I've never tried them.

I dunno, though, FreeBSD has vm86() or such syscall, right? At least used to, though I guess nobody has ever tried to get DOSEMU working since a long time ago. Admittedly, BIOS isn't popular for various reasons (bugs, non-reentrant), though I don't see an easy replacement (at least nothing that will please most people, probably Linux + Windows is considered "good enough"). Coreboot still doesn't support a lot, and rumors of UEFI assimilating us all are always present, so who knows.

P.S. Honestly, I'm not sure the point you were trying to make. And I almost want to (barely) debate about how/why things aren't supported forever (though usually for inane reasons) instead of having decisions based upon end-user convenience or technical merit or whatever random virtue I can imagine, heh. I don't know, it's just weird to try to understand such a complex (tech) world.

Post reply
 

Complete thread:

Back to the forum
Board view  Mix view
22552 Postings in 2097 Threads, 401 registered users, 24 users online (1 registered, 23 guests)
DOS ain't dead | Admin contact
RSS Feed
powered by my little forum