At 10:55 PM 7/10/99 +0200, you wrote:
>You raise a very interesting question there. Where is the line between an
>MSX and other computers?
>The answer to that question is in the charasterics of an MSX I think. So any
>new machine with the name MSX should in the first place run most of the msx
>software ever made (not all, since a lot of software for msx1 didn't run on
>a msx2 either). And not running it emulated, I agree with that. Because in
>that case there are a already a lot of new msx's around (PC, Unix, Amiga and
>all those other systems running emulators).
I don't think an emulator is essentially different from a "real" MSX.
Currently, you can tell emulators apart from real MSXes. For example, the
emulator may run too slow, contain bugs, produce video and sound that are a
bit off etc.
But if there would be a perfect emulator, would there still be a real
difference with the real thing? Is there, from the user's point of view,
really a distinction line between software and hardware? I don't think so.
What if a new IC would perfectly emulate the Z80 using an embedded RISC
processor running a Z80 emulator. You would have a single IC with the
functionality of a Z80. If you don't look inside the IC, you can't see the
difference. Is an MSX built using this new IC a real MSX? It is, in my
opinion.
Now also other parts of the MSX (PSG, VDP) are emulated using embedded RISC
processors. Is it still MSX?
To make things more efficient, all ICs are combined into a single IC. And
because the RISC processor is very fast, all emulation tasks are handled by
a single processor instead of multiple. Is it still MSX?
Now take the memory of the RISC processor outside of the IC and use RAM
instead of ROM. So the emulation is now completely done in software. Is it
still MSX?
Final step, you add an operating system that allows the computer to do
other things besides emulating MSX. Ofcourse, when it's doing those other
things, it's not really MSX. But if it's in MSX emulation mode, I think it
is a real MSX.
Conclusion:
In my opinion, there is no real difference between software implementation
of MSX and hardware implementation. The only thing that matters is the
accuracy of the emulation.
Note:
If I understand it right, the Pentium III is essentially a RISC processor
emulating an x86 processor. So the story above is not as fictious as it may
seem...
Another note:
Maybe it's true in general that there is no difference between perfect
emulation and the real thing.
Who knows, maybe I programmed my computer to emulate my brain and respond
to messages on the MSX list. You can't tell the difference, because you
don't see me typing...
Bye,
Maarten
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