Will VirtualPC benefit from Xbox2 tech???

jccbinjccbin
Posted:
in Mac Software edited January 2014
Naturally, one hopes that the knowledge of Windows code will help Virtual PC now that MisterSoftee owns the tech. But could the specialized Windows NT core used in the Xbox2 SDK G5s help VirtualPC?



MS has basically ported some/most/the core of Windows to the G5 PPC for XBox2 development. Could those ported portions be used to improved VPC?



Obviously, making the the core PPC-native is DIFFERENT from making the NT an OS X application. One is a direct OS layer for the PPC (Unix, NT, OS X anyone?) , the other would be yet another emulation on top of OS X.



Ideas?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 1
    bartobarto Posts: 2,246member
    Virtual PC is at one end of the emulation spectrum. It emulates a computer, not an OS, so having PowerPC native windows libraries doesn't really help it. Unless Microsoft chose to turn VPC into a two-level system translating x86 Windows instructions into PowerPC Mac OS X instructions. However, I doubt they would do this (it would be less compatible - the selling point of VPC.). The Darwine project aims to do this, btw.



    Where the XBox2 MIGHT help is if Microsoft chooses to make it backwards compatible with the current XBox, they will need to emulate the original XBox (which is basically a PC). Microsoft could base such an emulator on VirtualPC, or write a new emulator and base VirtualPC 7 on it.



    Barto
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