4 ms·
How would full translation work? The opcodes are close? Could you do a just in time version?
by djmips 3y ago
How would full translation work? The opcodes are close? Could you do a just in time version?
- aap_ 3y agoI think the 8086 was designed such that 8080 assembly code could be assembled as 8086 machine code. So I'd guess the instruction emulation would probably be reasonably efficient.
- billforsternz 3y agoYes, pretty close so full translation is easy if you have the source code. If not, emulation is the normal way. My emulator was faster than native 8080 code on everything but vanilla 8088 PCs, so it's more than sufficient. I address translation in depth in my Retro Sargon project, an exercise in getting a vintage Z80 (8080 superset) assembly language program working on modern PCs. https://github.com/billforsternz/retro-sargon https://github.com/billforsternz/retro-sargon See the "Yet More Details" section in the README.