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[Unmoderated] Moron is coming...ANN.lu
Posted on 10-May-2004 20:35 GMT by Jim Hellsworth10 comments
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Moron is a multi cpu emulating system. Moron emulates one or more cpu's at the same time with it's internal JIT compiler. What is Moron?

Moron is a multi cpu emulating system. Moron emulates one or more cpu's at the same time with it's internal JIT compiler. It's BD3-JIT (Bi Directional Triple JIT) system will be available in all configurations to allow user specific setup and maximum performance under any circumstances.

Requirements:

An x86, PegasOs or AmigaOne System (Mac will be supported later on)

An OS! AmigaOS 4, MorphOS, MacOS. (BeOS will be supported later on)

At least 128MB more than you want to have within the emulation.

A PCI/AGP graphics card the emulated system supports.

Details:

Moron contains a JIT compiler for x86, PPC and 68K. Depending which hardware Moron is running on the specific CPU emulation will be replaced by it's nativ cpu. This allows to run all PPC and 68K software on x86 systems and x86 software on PPC.

The big advantage is that it's possible to run the OS without modifing it. Moron comes with a pre configured setup for any available configuration. After running Moron from a FAT or Ext2 partition you can boot from the normal OS-CD (if the CD supports booting) and install the OS on any partition or hard disk. Moron itself has an optional boot manager which supports emulation selection.

We have currently three running Moron systems. First is an Athlon 2300XP which run's AmigaOS 4, MorphOS and MacOS. Second is a PegasOS-II system running AmigaOS 4 and MacOS. The third system is an AmigaOne running MacOS and MorphOS.

The boot time is just a little longer than it's on the original system. Since there is no linux kernel it's even much (much much) faster up and running than Amithlon.

It's possible to optimize the JIT speed by increasing it's cache. We also provide OS side tools to work around the OS specific 68K JIT and use the native JIT. This allows to use 68K software with the desired OS without using the OS internal JIT.

Compatibly:

You can run any system friendly software. Since most software is fitting into that mask it will work.

AmigaOS 1.x, AmigaOS 2.x and AmigaOS 3.x require specific hardware and are not supported.

We tested the latest available AmigaOS4 and MorpOS Betas as well as the latest MacOS without big trouble. Some onboard devices are still unsupported, but we're working on that. Expecialy when using X86 hardware there is a big bandwidth to support.

These drivers will be introduced as normal Amiga/Mac side drivers. Some devices are compatible by default. e.g. the MorphOS USB driver is working on x86 main boards.

The x86 JIt isn't 100% running, but when finished you'll be able to run any WindowsXP on MorphOS and Pegasos.

Speed:

Yes, you want to know the speed compared to the real system.

Well, since there is no CPU to emulate using MorphOS on AmigaOne and OS4 on Pegasos-II isn't a challenge. More interesting is the x86 system. Compared to Amithlon Moron is a little faster. The reason is that we don't emulate *any* system specific hardware.

Due the fact that we'll need to make additional changes before final release, these changes may effect the speed in both directions. Currently the mentioned Athlon system is a little slower than the fastest Pegasos-II. "A little" means that you can measure the difference, but usage feels nearly identicaly.

If you think that's slow, then simply buy a faster system.

List of all comments to this article
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Comment 1Doh-nut10-May-2004 19:02 GMT
Comment 2Eva10-May-2004 20:03 GMT
Comment 3Bobson10-May-2004 20:14 GMT
Comment 4Anonymous10-May-2004 20:22 GMT
Comment 5T_Bone10-May-2004 20:41 GMT
Comment 6Ian10-May-2004 21:20 GMT
Comment 7Bill Hoggett10-May-2004 22:00 GMT
Moron is coming... : Comment 8 of 10ANN.lu
Posted by Agima on 10-May-2004 22:03 GMT
In reply to Comment 1 (Doh-nut):
>>Wow! What an awesomely T-HOAX-IC news ...


No, this is a real project!

DoomMaster is in charge of the native 68k Amiga OS 4.0 on Amiga 2000 port of this software!! :-)
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List of all comments to this article (continued)
Comment 9Bernie MeyerRegistered user10-May-2004 22:16 GMT
Comment 10Andrew Korn10-May-2004 22:31 GMT
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