[Coco] Does anyone still have the mocha code and could it be ported to Android?

[Aaron Wolfe]

On Thu, Jan 15, 2015 at 9:33 AM, tim franklinlabs.com
<tim at franklinlabs.com> wrote:
>      On January 15, 2015 at 7:59 AM Bill Pierce via Coco
>
>      Something I've been wondering.... Since the CocoFPGA is really
>      nothing but an emulator running on dedicated hardware, could this
>      emulation be run in a VIrtual Machine emulating the FPGA?
>      From what I understand, it the most hardware accurate emulation
>      that's been done and that would be the code to make an emulator
>      from.
>
>    I'm not sure I agree with your description of how a FPGA works. A FPGA
>    is a network of gate modules which can be arranged in such a way to
>    emulate other digital chips. It's not an "emulator running on dedicated
>    hardware" as you described. The arrangement of gate modules can act
>    like a simple TTL logic circuit all the way up to a CPU or DSP.
>    Although the code to arrange the gates looks like software, it's not.
>    Code is executed sequentially by a CPU. The FPGA source instructs the
>    compiler how to arrange and connect the gates to achieve the desired
>    digital timing and path of signals.
>
>    If you look at the "code" of a FPGA you have to change your thought
>    process in that the actions of each line is executed simultaneously
>    with others. It's not sequential. It's also not a "program" by
>    definition. So, attempting to emulate a FPGA in software is doesn't
>    really make allot of sense because it's not like emulating one CPU with
>    code built on another CPU.


This is spot on as far as I understand things.  Using CoCo3FPGA as the
basis for a traditional program on a general purpose computer would
not be practical.

We do have 2 open source, cross platform emulators already: XRoar and
MESS.  Is there a reason not to put efforts behind making these
better?  I'm not sure what starting from scratch would gain.

-Aaron