[Qemu-devel] Porting/running to GP32

[Qemu-devel] Porting/running to GP32

[Mark Watson]

Hi,

I've recently discovered QEMU when looking for ways to run Civilization (DOS 
version) on my GP32! For those who do not know the GP32, it is an ARM9 based 
handheld gaming device that runs at 150MHz max on 16-bit bus. It has 8MB RAM 
only. In terms of libraries it has newlib and the GP32 SDK only. I'd be 
pleased if it could emulate a 2MB 386 PC running at 16MHz ish -> using the 
System emulation. Do you think that will be possible?

Anyway I found QEMU and it looks great! I like the idea of dynamic compilation 
using small C code ections. I'm trying to work out what I'll need to do in 
order to get this working (and if it should be possible without too much 
effort). Also to check no-one objects. Note that I plan to build using GCC 
3.4 cross compiling to arm-elf target. BTW what kind of state is the ARM Host 
CPU support? Anyone successfully run DOS programs?

I believe I will need to do at least the following:
i) Modify the sound emulation to talk directly to the GP32 sound hardware.
ii) Modify the video emulation to talk directly to the GP32 video hardware.
iii) Replace getopt with configuration file.
iv) Remove all (any?) Linux specific code sections.
iv) Modify build setup to only build x86 system emulation (with software mmu).

I 'm sure I have missed _lots_ out here since I haven't looked at the source 
much yet. I'd be grateful for any hints/suggestions as to what else I will 
need to do. 

Thanks,

Mark 

Re: [Qemu-devel] Porting/running to GP32

[Michael L Torrie]

On Fri, 2004-05-07 at 01:07, Mark Watson wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I've recently discovered QEMU when looking for ways to run Civilization (DOS 
> version) on my GP32! For those who do not know the GP32, it is an ARM9 based 
> handheld gaming device that runs at 150MHz max on 16-bit bus. It has 8MB RAM 
> only. In terms of libraries it has newlib and the GP32 SDK only. I'd be 
> pleased if it could emulate a 2MB 386 PC running at 16MHz ish -> using the 
> System emulation. Do you think that will be possible?

Dunno, but if you're trying to run DOS applications, a better choice
than qemu may be dosbox (http://dosbox.sourceforge.net).  Dosbox may not
be as fast as qemu, however, so that may not work for you.  But dosbox
does implement a very good DOS pc environment that needs to other
operating system or video drivers.  It provides standard vga (256-color)
and sound blaster support for DOS apps. 

Michael

> 
> Anyway I found QEMU and it looks great! I like the idea of dynamic compilation 
> using small C code ections. I'm trying to work out what I'll need to do in 
> order to get this working (and if it should be possible without too much 
> effort). Also to check no-one objects. Note that I plan to build using GCC 
> 3.4 cross compiling to arm-elf target. BTW what kind of state is the ARM Host 
> CPU support? Anyone successfully run DOS programs?
> 
> I believe I will need to do at least the following:
> i) Modify the sound emulation to talk directly to the GP32 sound hardware.
> ii) Modify the video emulation to talk directly to the GP32 video hardware.
> iii) Replace getopt with configuration file.
> iv) Remove all (any?) Linux specific code sections.
> iv) Modify build setup to only build x86 system emulation (with software mmu).
> 
> I 'm sure I have missed _lots_ out here since I haven't looked at the source 
> much yet. I'd be grateful for any hints/suggestions as to what else I will 
> need to do. 
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Mark 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Qemu-devel mailing list
> Qemu-devel@nongnu.org
> http://mail.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/qemu-devel
-- 
Michael L Torrie <torriem@chem.byu.edu>

Re: [Qemu-devel] Porting/running to GP32

[Mark Watson]

On Friday 07 May 2004 18:53, Michael L Torrie wrote:
> On Fri, 2004-05-07 at 01:07, Mark Watson wrote:
> > I've recently discovered QEMU when looking for ways to run Civilization
> > (DOS version) on my GP32! For those who do not know the GP32, it is an
> > ARM9 based handheld gaming device that runs at 150MHz max on 16-bit bus.
> > It has 8MB RAM only. In terms of libraries it has newlib and the GP32 SDK
> > only. I'd be pleased if it could emulate a 2MB 386 PC running at 16MHz
> > ish -> using the System emulation. Do you think that will be possible?
>
> Dunno, but if you're trying to run DOS applications, a better choice
> than qemu may be dosbox (http://dosbox.sourceforge.net).  Dosbox may not
> be as fast as qemu, however, so that may not work for you.  But dosbox
> does implement a very good DOS pc environment that needs to other
> operating system or video drivers.  It provides standard vga (256-color)
> and sound blaster support for DOS apps.

Thanks for the pointer to dosbox, I had not seen that before. It certainly 
looks very comprehensive (in terms of various hardware support etc). However 
I think the performance will not be good enough for the GP32. I think I'll 
give qemu a go first... Wish me luck.

Thanks,

Mark