Date   : Thu, 11 Mar 2010 20:55:42 +0100
From   : rick@... (Rick Murray)
Subject: Tube on the Archimedes

On 11/03/2010 02:35, Theo Markettos wrote:

 > The gory details are explained in the Aleph One PC card DDK
 > if anyone wants to know.

Mmm, that's part of the stuff... <google>

Ah, there we go. DDKs.zip.

In case anybody needs to know: http://www.riscos.info/index.php/PC


Mmmm, problem. In driver code archive, /keyboard/KeybPC63.c
The file is gibberish, with the top looking like:
   <blah>PKLITE Copr. 1992 PKWARE Inc. All Rights ReservedNot enough
   memory<blah>
No "MZ" so not an EXE. Doesn't run as a COM. WinZip and 7Zip don't 
recognise it as a compressed file (with or without .zip extn).


<an hour later>

Sorry, been reading stuff. Interesting.


I always had an idea that the WinRisc software was a bit lame. It 
appeared to take a bitmap of each window and push it to the host. Not 
only was this slow, but it also needed the whole !PC running.
My question is if it would be possible to start up the x86 CPU for 
running code only, with not only the machine being emulated, but Windows 
as well. I might look into the viability of some sort of app to run a 
Windows .EXE (one at a time!) which will be drawn into and work 
alongside the other RISC OS applications. Why? Because I believe it can 
be done. :-)
Nothing fancy. Minimal hardware support (PC speaker at best, no SB). No 
fancy video modes. And certainly nothing sexier than Win3.11 (as little 
as we can get away with to actually make it start to work!).

After all, isn't this _vaguely_ how WINE on Linux works? It is faking 
the whole Windows environment. The only major difference in my plan is 
we'll be talking two processors as the ARM won't natively do x86 code!
[great, this means I'll need to learn some icky x86]


 > I don't think a hardware bug in the chip can be counted as Acorn's fault.

I stand corrected.
[that is, on one leg with my arms in the air <giggle>]


Best wishes,

Rick.

-- 
Rick Murray, eeePC901 & ADSL WiFI'd into it, all ETLAs!
BBC B: DNFS, 2 x 5.25" floppies, EPROM prog, Acorn TTX
E01S FileStore, A3000/A5000/RiscPC/various PCs/blahblah...
 >> TO PRIVATE MAIL ME, REMOVE [BBC-Micro] FROM SUBJECT <<