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

tim franklinlabs.com tim at franklinlabs.com
Thu Jan 15 16:26:59 EST 2015


   Bill, not to beat a dead horse... I understood what you were talking
   about. Real time emulation of a FPGA which is a parallel process engine
   would not be practical with a CPU which is a serial engine. There are
   FPGA simulators used to verify the gate behavior, perhaps these what
   you are referring too. These don't actually operate real time as a
   FPGA. They calculate the gate behavior for digital operation and timing
   analysis.

     On January 15, 2015 at 3:06 PM Bill Pierce via Coco
     <coco at maltedmedia.com> wrote:
     First, I think you guys took my suggestion wrong to start with. I
     was not implying to "emulate" the CocoFPGA, but to emulate the FPGA
     itself in a VM to run the Coco code on a PC. I had done some
     googling and found that commercial developers run FPGA emulation in
     VMs (and yes, any code OR hardware "pretending" to be something it's
     not IS an emulation and/or simulation) to develope new systems.
     These may be expensive commercial VMs or may be available as open
     source, I don't know. It was just an observation from things I had
     seen elsewhere. This would not be "starting from scratch" as the
     code already exists.
     2nd.. as for Mess.... there's waaaay too many fingers in that pie
     and code you write today may be deleted/changed/obsolete tomorrow by
     someone else as has been the case with the Coco emulation since it
     was introduced into Mess. It changes from version to version and for
     the past several versions (read years), that change has been for the
     worst (as far as the Coco is concerned).
     As for XRaor, I'm all for it, but there would have to be a Coco 3
     implementation before I would be seriously interested. I love the
     Coco 2, but the Coco 3 is my workhorse and the platform I prefer.
     I understand Ciaran's implementation of the Coco 2 was an extra due
     to it being so similar to the Dragon in that much the same code
     could be used and I know the Coco 3 would be a whole new ballgame.
     So, in the end, again, I'll stick with Vcc 1.4.3b until something
     better comes along.
     Bill Pierce
     "Today is a good day... I woke up" - Ritchie Havens
     My Music from the Tandy/Radio Shack Color Computer 2 & 3
     https://sites.google.com/site/dabarnstudio/
     Co-Contributor, Co-Editor for CocoPedia
     http://www.cocopedia.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
     E-Mail: ooogalapasooo at aol.com
     -----Original Message-----
     From: Aaron Wolfe <aawolfe at gmail.com>
     To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts <coco at maltedmedia.com>
     Sent: Thu, Jan 15, 2015 1:35 pm
     Subject: Re: [Coco] Does anyone still have the mocha code and could
     it be ported to Android?
     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
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