| From: | Alastair M. Robinson |
| Date: | 1 Sep 2000 at 21:32:01 |
| Subject: | Re: Amiga PPC UAE |
Hi Don,
> You may find that many programs which appear not to need AGA actually
> have calls to the chips at some point because the programmer has used a
> routine without thinking. For example, Quarterback Tools won't run on a
> Draco although it just opens a window on the Workbench and shouldn't
> need AGA.
Hmmm. Maybe Quarterback is hitting the disk-drive hardware directly?
> Other programs may access Paula for sound while using RtG for graphics.
Yep - but emulating Paula's sample-replay isn't hard. The modulation stuff
for AM/FM synthesis would be a lot more difficult - but does anyone know of
software which actually used this capability? (Maybe PlaySID?)
In actual fact, I think most serious apps which 'hit the hardware' only hit
the sound chip and CIAs (maybe the serial port too). Very few serious
programs create their own copperlists or hit the display hardware directly.
If AmigaOS could be made to boot without the display hardware being present,
as was presumably the case in the Draco, (or even fully emulated) then RTG
software could take over the reins as soon as bootup is complete. If 100%
compatibility with A500 games is no longer a requirement, those chips that
do need to be emulated should no longer need to be emulated in lockstep with
emulated processor cycles, so I should imagine the resulting emulation would
be a lot less complex, and a good deal faster.
Shame this is all academic, isn't it! ;^)
All the best,
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