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Difference between revisions of "SGI emulation"
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"[the counter does not show the amount of frames drawn] the percentage shown is how fast the emulated system is running as a fraction of its hardware speed. 100% means it should be running with the same effective speed as the real hardware, while <100% means the emulation can't keep up with hardware." | "[the counter does not show the amount of frames drawn] the percentage shown is how fast the emulated system is running as a fraction of its hardware speed. 100% means it should be running with the same effective speed as the real hardware, while <100% means the emulation can't keep up with hardware." | ||
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Revision as of 10:50, 28 December 2022
Few options for emulating SGI systems are available, with MAME being the emulator furthest along.
Notes
MAME versions
There were graphics fixes in MAME 0.213 which allow Alias Power Animator 7.5 to run. Unfortunately, these also caused graphics regressions e.g. inverting the interface in Alias 6 (shows as black) and not displaying the grid in Softimage. Use 0.212 to make these applications work.
Networking was introduced in MAME 0.220, however it was not functioning correctly if the MTU was set to 1500 (as default), only with MTU set at 1496. This was fixed by not transmitting FCS from MAME 0.232 onwards.
Dynamic recompilation was (re)introduced in MAME 0.241. This increases the emulation speed substantially, however it does not seem to boot IRIX 6.5 reliably.
To summarize:
- Use MAME 0.240 to emulate IRIX 6.5 reliably w/networking but without DRC (slower).
- Use the latest MAME version to emulate IRIX 5.3 w/networking and DRC (fast!).
- Use MAME 0.212 if you get graphics errors and want to run specific graphics applications.
IRIX versions
MAME mainly supports Indy and Indigo2 with XL graphics, which run IRIX 5.3 and 6.5 well.
MAME can run IRIX 4 on an emulated Indigo2, however IRIX 4 does not support XL graphics, so you need to use a terminal interface. In theory you should be able to use X11-forwaring over the network to show graphics on a different system, and possibly even forward 3D graphics through IrisGL to another SGI (or emulated SGI).
Command line options
To disable graphics and enable a virtual terminal, use the commandline options
-gio64_gfx "" -ioc2:rs232b terminal
You may need to enable the terminal keyboard in the MAME option menu, under "Input Settings", "Keyboard Selection" "root:ioc2::rs232b:terminal:keyboard".
To enable dual head mode when emulating the Indigo2 (two emulated xl24 adapters with screens side by side in glorious 2560x1024 resolution) use:
-gio64_gfx xl24 -gio64_exp0 xl24
Networking
Quoting pmackinlay (MAME developer):
"MAME’s TAP code just maps the emulated Ethernet device to one end of a TAP pair, letting you decide what to do with the other end in the host operating system. You can route or bridge it or whatever you want. To make it do anything useful, you generally need to configure the emulated system’s network stack in a way that makes sense to whatever you have done on the other side."
There currently seems to be problems using the suggested OpenVPN TAP adapter in Windows 11, with blue screens and system reboots. This does not seem to be caused by MAME, but the TAP adapter implementation.
Emulation speed
What does the percentage counter in MAME mean? Quoting pmackinlay:
"[the counter does not show the amount of frames drawn] the percentage shown is how fast the emulated system is running as a fraction of its hardware speed. 100% means it should be running with the same effective speed as the real hardware, while <100% means the emulation can't keep up with hardware."