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Cyhist Feb 05 1997 C
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Date: Wed, 5 Feb 1997 02:12:57 -0800
Reply-To: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@SJUVM.STJOHNS.EDU>
Sender: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@SJUVM.STJOHNS.EDU>
From: Efrem Lipkin <efrem@acm.org>
Subject: CM: Emulation vs microcode
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Community Memory: Discussion List on the History of Cyberspace ______________________________________________________________________
This all gets rather silly. Emulation is the same as in interpretation, except that the language being interpreted is assumed to have a hardware realization somewhere. But if the machine being emulated was originally implemented via a microcode engine, then there is no physical realization and it is all interpretation. This not an entirely silly line of thought as I suspect the earliest machines to be emulated were either relay-based, military, fire-control gizmos, analogue computers, or Turing machines. Any data? The earliest case I know was the emulation of a more programmable "virtual" architecture on the rumored to be unprogrammable Bendix G-15 (about the same size as a large fridge too).
The first use of "virtual" emulation--emulation of an unimplemented language in another unimplemented language--was certainly performed by a metamathematican while all digital computation was done with relays. I would be very interested in knowing the instance of this kind of argument. I am almost inclined to give the award to Cantor for Diagonalization but that would be an extreme position.
Does anyone know the first machine to use microcode?
Efrem
At 11:32 PM 2/1/97 -0500, you wrote:
>______________________________________________________________________
>>If Microsoft's Altair BASIC was not the first microcomputer program developed using an emulator, what was?
>
>Why not just use good marketting practice and say "MicroSoft's Altair BASIC was the first microcomuter program developed using an emulator by two people named Gates and Allen" - then you could be sure of being right. This is beginning to sound like a publicity stunt.
>
>
______________________________________________________________________
Reply-To: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@SJUVM.STJOHNS.EDU>
Sender: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@SJUVM.STJOHNS.EDU>
From: Efrem Lipkin <efrem@acm.org>
Subject: CM: Emulation vs microcode
______________________________________________________________________
Community Memory: Discussion List on the History of Cyberspace ______________________________________________________________________
This all gets rather silly. Emulation is the same as in interpretation, except that the language being interpreted is assumed to have a hardware realization somewhere. But if the machine being emulated was originally implemented via a microcode engine, then there is no physical realization and it is all interpretation. This not an entirely silly line of thought as I suspect the earliest machines to be emulated were either relay-based, military, fire-control gizmos, analogue computers, or Turing machines. Any data? The earliest case I know was the emulation of a more programmable "virtual" architecture on the rumored to be unprogrammable Bendix G-15 (about the same size as a large fridge too).
The first use of "virtual" emulation--emulation of an unimplemented language in another unimplemented language--was certainly performed by a metamathematican while all digital computation was done with relays. I would be very interested in knowing the instance of this kind of argument. I am almost inclined to give the award to Cantor for Diagonalization but that would be an extreme position.
Does anyone know the first machine to use microcode?
Efrem
At 11:32 PM 2/1/97 -0500, you wrote:
>______________________________________________________________________
>>If Microsoft's Altair BASIC was not the first microcomputer program developed using an emulator, what was?
>
>Why not just use good marketting practice and say "MicroSoft's Altair BASIC was the first microcomuter program developed using an emulator by two people named Gates and Allen" - then you could be sure of being right. This is beginning to sound like a publicity stunt.
>
>
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