Virtual X68000 1.1

Stability Status

Alpha quality (for developers only).

Release Plan

This version will include:

MC68000 processor emulation.

This version will not include:

Visible graphics VRAM.

Test Results

These are the lists of author's test results. These lists will be updated as development progresses.

Virtual X68000 Project is looking for testing contributers who report success/failure with their copies of executables. A report should contain at least the executable's name and version, and by what operation word does it abort.

Note that as hardware emulation is not implemented much, almost all executables that use hardware functions are expected to fail now.

Floppy Images

Human68k 3.02 (download version): [1.1.3] Boots up to a command prompt. Some commands still stops the virtual machine. (screenshot 1, screenshot 2)
Ultima V - Warriors of Destiny: [1.1.3] The opening demo runs, but no game can be started.

Executables

Virtual X68000 is now tested with LHA's self-extractor (lha_x647.x), LHA itself (lha.x), HAS (has.x), HLK (hlk301.x), and DIS (dis.x).

lha_x647.x: [1.1.0.199911xx] extracts contents successfully if not overwriting.
lha.x (2.13 Rel. 47): [1.1.0.199911xx] It displays usage if standard input is /dev/null. LHA searches memory for TwentyOne. Dies at a _FILES DOS call. (Screenshot)
has.x: [1.1.0.199911xx] produces an object file for an empty source file. Dies at a DBNE instruction. (DBcc instructions are not implemented.)
hlk301.x: [0.35] displays its usage and exits if no arguments given.
dis.x (2.04beta): [1.1.0.199911xx] mostly runs, but dies at a FLOAT call at last. (Screenshot)

Performance

As of version 0.35, limited preliminary tests indicate that properly optimized vx68k runs about twice as fast on 200MHz-clocked MMX-Pentium (GNU/Linux) as 10MHz-clocked X68000 does.

When compiling by egcs 1.1.2, using -fomit-frame-pointer will improve the execution speed by several percents. Using -fstrict-aliasing will improve it by several more percents, too.

GCC 2.95.2 does not enable -fstrict-aliasing automatically with -O2 or higher.

Virtual X68000 Project is looking for a more comprehensive benchmark program. If you know one, please let us know.