Windows emulator for SPARC hardware (yeah, right)

John Berger

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Dec 29, 2004, 10:13:24 PM12/29/04

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I'm sure that I answered my own question (see parentheses in the
subject), but I'll ask it anyway.

Is there a Windows emulator out there that will successfully run Windows
9x/2000 under the *SPARC* architecture? (Those who mention WABI will be
given several cuts via the edges of broken Windows 3.1 diskettes.
Plenty of lemon juice will then be applied.)

I know that WINE is available for Solaris x86, but if I'm going to use
an x86 machine, I might as well just use a hard drive, tray-swap
mechanism and install Windows natively on a separate hard drive. I'm
actually looking to run Windows 9x on my Sun Blade 100. I'm assuming
that the machine code translation from SPARC to x86 is the reason why I
can't find any. A Sun PCi card is not feasible at this time.

If the answer is, as I expect, "no" then I'll just have to drag an old
PC out of storage, throw Windows on it, and get myself a wireless LAN
card for it. So, unless there just happens to be such an emulator I'll
be no worse off than I am now, but I figured that it doesn't hurt to ask.

-- John

Dave Uhring

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Dec 29, 2004, 10:31:41 PM12/29/04

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On Wed, 29 Dec 2004 22:13:24 -0500, John Berger wrote:
> I'm
> actually looking to run Windows 9x on my Sun Blade 100. I'm assuming
> that the machine code translation from SPARC to x86 is the reason why I
> can't find any. A Sun PCi card is not feasible at this time.

Well, that is how you do it. Even if some emulator could deal with the
instruction sets it would also have to deal with the endianness of the
different processors. If there were one available it would run at the
speed of an original i4004.

> If the answer is, as I expect, "no" then I'll just have to drag an old
> PC out of storage, throw Windows on it, and get myself a wireless LAN
> card for it. So, unless there just happens to be such an emulator I'll
> be no worse off than I am now, but I figured that it doesn't hurt to ask.

And what's wrong with the Windows machine you are now using?

Rich Teer

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Dec 30, 2004, 12:47:50 AM12/30/04

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On Wed, 29 Dec 2004, John Berger wrote:

> Is there a Windows emulator out there that will successfully run Windows
> 9x/2000 under the *SPARC* architecture? (Those who mention WABI will be
> given several cuts via the edges of broken Windows 3.1 diskettes.
> Plenty of lemon juice will then be applied.)

Not an emulator as such, but you might want to check out SunPCi. It's
essentially a PC on a PCI card and some "glue" software to get it to
work with your system. Follow the links on www.sun.com/desktop for more
info.

HTH,

--
Rich Teer, SCNA, SCSA, author of "Solaris Systems Programming"

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Peter Arnold

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Dec 30, 2004, 3:29:47 AM12/30/04

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I think you only option is http://bochs.sourceforge.net/ . I havn't
tried it so I can't comment on how it runs but I suspect it would suck.
IIRC blastwave.org has a package of it that should relieve *some* of the
pain of installing it.

I really think you should reconsider the SunPCi option.

Cheers
Peter Arnold

Sarah Tanembaum

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Dec 30, 2004, 10:54:42 AM12/30/04

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Other solution might work but getting your old pc back is the best
solution(no headache, just more real estate). You can always use VNC if
you don't want to be bothered with PC monitor.

I'm not sure if Terminal Services has client for Solaris, but VNC will
do just fine.

Sarah.

Boyd Adamson

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Dec 30, 2004, 6:19:28 PM12/30/04

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Peter Arnold <arno...@NOSPAMoptusnet.com.au> writes:

QEMU (http://fabrice.bellard.free.fr/qemu/) seems to be getting a
following too.

A warning, though. both bochs and qemu, being software emulations are
interested in as much CPU power as you can throw at them. They will be
SLOW on a Blade 100.

Mårten Svantesson

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Jan 2, 2005, 7:30:34 AM1/2/05

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Sarah Tanembaum <sarahta...@yahoo.com> writes:

> I'm not sure if Terminal Services has client for Solaris, but VNC will
> do just fine.

Rdesktop works fine. The only issue I know of is that dead keys
doesn't work (they work on Linux - annoying...).

--
- Mårten

mail: m...@kth.se *** ICQ: 4356928 *** mobile: +46 (0)707390385

Mårten Svantesson

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Jan 2, 2005, 7:37:43 AM1/2/05

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Boyd Adamson <boydhyph...@nospam.usa.net> writes:

Virtutech Simics might be reasonably fast. But if you don't have
any academic affiliation the price will most probably be out of your
league.

http://www.virtutech.com/products/simics.html

John_B

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Jan 5, 2005, 9:39:27 AM1/5/05

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Sarah Tanembaum wrote:

> Other solution might work but getting your old pc back is the best
> solution(no headache, just more real estate). You can always use VNC if
> you don't want to be bothered with PC monitor.
>
> I'm not sure if Terminal Services has client for Solaris, but VNC will
> do just fine.

I figured as much. I don't need it for anything critical anyway. I was
just hoping to avoid running another network cable or buying a wireless
card, not that either of those options are particularly challenging or
expensive.

We have no less than 7 Solaris/Windows systems scattered throughout the
house, so I have VNC installed on all of them. I also use it at work so
that I can control my Windows laptop from my Ultra 5.

-- John