2023-05-23 07:30:00
While reading This articleI asked myself several questions.
The first one :
The transition to Full 64 bits would not prevent the use of 32 or 16 bit applications, but just that would be done in a different way, via virtualization for example, which today is a mature technology.
This sentence makes me wince: I have the impression that the author of the article does not understand virtualization (or so it is me). I have the impression that he confuses virtualization and emulation: indeed, from my point of view, virtualization is only a way of scheduling and managing resources. If a resource or an instruction set is not implemented in hardware, virtualization cannot do anything. That said, I know that we can emulate network devices for example. But is it possible for CPU resources? At this stage, we would arrive at a hybrid emulation/virtualization system. Does that exist? Is it possible ? I admit that it’s been a while since I’ve been close to virtualization, and I would be interested in your opinions.
Second question: if support for the 16/32-bit mode disappears, this could pose a problem for retrogaming (as pointed out by This article), which will require emulation. I’m not too worried about the technical aspect (it exists, I’m thinking for example of x86 emulation for ARM,: Microsoft doesand free side there is That under development, and possibly other projects). That said, I thought of another solution: would it be possible to set up on a “standard” PC a technology such as the SunPCI (for those who don’t know, it’s a PC card containing an x86 CPU, RAM and a graphics processor to run Windows on a SPARC workstation), or would that require modifying the current architecture? One could consider, for example, Retrogaming PCI cards containing a 16/32-bit x86 compatible CPU… Afterwards, the question arises of the cost of developing technology in relation to the benefits (CPUs are fast enough today to emulate old machines ), but I’m curious, from a theoretical point of view, if this would be possible.
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#bit #compatibility #Intel #X86 #architecture #questions