Re: Machine language and assembler translators?

"toby" <toby@telegraphics.com.au>
22 Jul 2005 20:19:46 -0400

          From comp.compilers

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[2 earlier articles]
Re: Machine language and assembler translators? DrDiettrich@compuserve.de (Hans-Peter Diettrich) (2005-06-23)
Re: Machine language and assembler translators? gah@ugcs.caltech.edu (glen herrmannsfeldt) (2005-06-23)
Re: Machine language and assembler translators? gah@ugcs.caltech.edu (glen herrmannsfeldt) (2005-06-26)
Re: Machine language and assembler translators? vtsikoza@yahoo.com (2005-06-30)
Re: Machine language and assembler translators? jcrens@earthlink.net (Jack Crenshaw) (2005-07-17)
Re: Machine language and assembler translators? gah@ugcs.caltech.edu (glen herrmannsfeldt) (2005-07-22)
Re: Machine language and assembler translators? toby@telegraphics.com.au (toby) (2005-07-22)
Re:Machine language and assembler translators? Robert.Thorpe@antenova.com (Robert Thorpe) (2005-07-22)
Re: Machine language and assembler translators? peter.jinks@manchester.ac.uk (Pete Jinks) (2005-07-22)
Re: Machine language and assembler translators? gah@ugcs.caltech.edu (glen herrmannsfeldt) (2005-07-26)
Re: Machine language and assembler translators? Martin.Ward@durham.ac.uk (Martin Ward) (2005-07-26)
Re: Machine language and assembler translators? haberg@math.su.se (2005-07-28)
Re: Machine language and assembler translators? jjk@acm.org (Jens Kilian) (2005-07-28)
[2 later articles]
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From: "toby" <toby@telegraphics.com.au>
Newsgroups: comp.compilers
Date: 22 Jul 2005 20:19:46 -0400
Organization: http://groups.google.com
References: 05-06-10305-06-112
Keywords: translator
Posted-Date: 22 Jul 2005 20:19:46 EDT

glen herrmannsfeldt wrote:
> Jatin Bhateja, Noida wrote:
>
>
> > My question is that are there any tools available which converts the
> > machine language of one architecture to other architecture. For
> > example if we have a got a complier for language say X and the target
> > language of compiler is say for ARM. Now are there any tools available
> > which convert or translate the code generated for ARM to some other
> > architecture say SH.
>
> (snip)
>
> > [Both machine language translators and assembler translators have been
> > around approximately forever. It's straightforward except for
> > self-modifying code, and incompatible byte order and data formats.
> > -John]
> ...
>
> When Apple started selling PowerPC based Macs the new OS included the
> ability to run 680x0 code, using some type of run time translation.


The first 68K emulator Apple shipped was an interpreter. The second
generation of Power Macs introduced a dynamic recompiling emulator
(much faster). This emulator is still in the Classic runtime of current
versions of OS X (so you can transparently run *integer* 68K code on
any Power Mac up to the present).


Apple plans to use a PowerPC emulator (Rosetta) to help users make the
transition from PowerPC to the x86-based product line. I'm surprised
they would go to so much effort, since unlike the 68K-PPC transition,
"porting" to the x86 architecture is largely just a recompile - the
APIs already being platform agnostic.


Much has been written about binary translation. For instance, there is
an informative white paper about ARDI's Syn68k:
http://www.ardi.com/syn68k.php There is a Yahoo! group,
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dynarec/ which is occasionally active
and apparently working on a project. Past posts go into some detail on
translation technicalities.


--Toby


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