Emulation

I recently came across this post which details how the author was able to get the MIPS version of NT running on QEMU via the MIPS64 emulation implemented by QEMU.

http://virtuallyfun.blogspot.com/2009/0 ... -past.html

This got me wondering whether it would be possible to run IRIX in a similar way, on a VM on an Intel box. Has anyone tried to do this? Is it possible?

The QEmu emulated hardware and any IRIX MIPS box differ way too much. Just as NT/MIPS won't run on SGI, IRIX won't run on Qemu/MIPS64. A processor architecture does not a system make.

I did some further searching and found that there is actually an emulator for x86 that IRIX has been ported to and runs on.

Here's some more info:

http://www.linux-mips.org/wiki/Emulators

Look under the "SimOS" section. The link appears dead so I'll search some more and try and figure out where the project ended up.

Update: Nevermind! The SimOS project was the academic precursor to VMware. There is currently no SimOS support and the project hasn't been worked on for a decade. Moreover, the IRIX kernel it used was modified and was available for download under restrictions from Stanford... unfortunately that is no longer the case. Well, we know it's technically possible, but apparently there's no easy way to accomplish this feat today.

GXEmul was/is probably the closest to SGI emulation, but it isn't very close. There's partial O2 emulation, but that doesn't include graphics as far as I know. From a graphics standpoint Octane/Odyssey is probably the easiest (hollow laugh) to emulate, since Odyssey takes a straight OpenGL input. SGI has released documentation for Newport/IP22, so the presence of docs might counter the added difficulty, who knows.

At any rate, IRIS emulation is not close.

I am new to these forums, though I don't own an SGI machine myself I am looking into finding a cheap Octane 2. My question is in regards to the possibility of running IRIX OS on another Platform such as x86 PC's much like Linux can be run across many and vice versa.. <Is it possible to run IRIX on my windows 8.1 PC using some kind of virtual machine such as QEMU or DOSBOX? I've always wanted to see IRIX run on another kind of architecture!

Anyone know the answer to this???

It would need some work...

GXEmul has some of the parts in place for IP32 emulation, but it doesn't work enough to run IRIX
MIEP is working on IP22 emulation, which may wind up being easier as SGI released the documentation for Indy and XL graphics.

The closest you will get to running on an intel platform is MaXX desktop I think.
http://forums.nekochan.net/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=16729754

Dare I say that IRIX and the hardware go hand in hand.

Krokodil wrote: Dare I say that IRIX and the hardware go hand in hand.

absolutely. i'd hate to see it running on some kid's supermarket laptop

foetz wrote:

Krokodil wrote: Dare I say that IRIX and the hardware go hand in hand.

absolutely. i'd hate to see it running on some kid's supermarket laptop

I'm kind of wondering if anyone ever got VMS to run on an iPhone ?

foetz wrote:

Krokodil wrote: Dare I say that IRIX and the hardware go hand in hand.

absolutely. i'd hate to see it running on some kid's supermarket laptop

I mean what is IRIX without it's unique hardware? Any UNIX or *nix could take it's place otherwise. Especially since 4dwm is no longer exclusively for IRIX.

I agree: Irix on SGI hw!

Krokodil wrote: I mean what is IRIX without it's unique hardware? Any UNIX or *nix could take it's place otherwise. Especially since 4dwm is no longer exclusively for IRIX.

You mean IID replica called MaXX Desktop? Then no. Its not the 4dwm alone which makes IRIX so fun, its a well though-out set of graphical applications and utilities which makes IRIX desktop experience different even today.

Also IRIX has a base of polished abandonware products, which are more pleasant to use, than modern open-source analogs, so don't dismiss possible-in-distant-future emulation solution

I'm getting less and less "gotta be the real thing" as I get older. Emulators are great - a wide variety of people can get the experience with much less frustration. It's possible to do even the formerly"special" stuff such as SGIs now that computers have crazy amounts of processing power in even low-end models, and more people can be exposed to alternative ways of doing things on the software side, anyway. I decided that while messing around on my VAX - sure, the DIGITAL storage interface systems are technically sweet, but it's frustrating to have to find all the little, very proprietary bits to get it working especially if you don't have experience with it. SIMH gives someone a dose of VMS much quicker, and without the "cross fingers and pray I don't get any smoke now that I've finally found this at a price I can afford" worry.

What would be really nice would be to have a full PowerPC Mac emulator, now that 10.6 is getting very old and the PPC hardware is getting old... I still have PPC/SysX and PPC/classic apps that I use.

I'm also deciding that there are many days when I don't want to juggle boxes to run stuff. Emulation and virtual machines require much less lifting, bending, and cord fiddling.

Agreed, SAQ.

Although emulator never gives the experience that real hardware does (that's why we all like collecting real gear , as time passes, lovely machines get more and more used and fragile, and more scarce on second market. So emulation is important.

I'll believe in IRIX emulation when I see an emulator for an SGI machine, like an Octane.

Octane??? Oh, man...
Wasn't Indy the only machine for which SGI released a minimum portion of needed documentation? Also the simpler architecture, the more chances to get a good emulator, we're hunting for more cycles anyway. And recent machines are not supported by old IRIX releases. Emulation of a mature graphics subsystem is another question though

dukzcry wrote: Octane??? Oh, man...
Wasn't Indy the only machine for which SGI released a minimum portion of needed documentation? Also the simpler architecture, the more chances to get a good emulator, we're hunting for more cycles anyway. And recent machines are not supported by old IRIX releases. Emulation of a mature graphics subsystem is another question though

Octane is just an example.It could be any SGI system that could showcase the best of SGI. Unfortunately, if I'm not mistaken alot of the documentation was either lost or destroyed, like the information on the O2's ICE chipset.

Krokodil wrote:

dukzcry wrote: Octane??? Oh, man...
Wasn't Indy the only machine for which SGI released a minimum portion of needed documentation? Also the simpler architecture, the more chances to get a good emulator, we're hunting for more cycles anyway. And recent machines are not supported by old IRIX releases. Emulation of a mature graphics subsystem is another question though

Octane is just an example.It could be any SGI system that could showcase the best of SGI. Unfortunately, if I'm not mistaken alot of the documentation was either lost or destroyed, like the information on the O2's ICE chipset.

For Octane specifically, we could do with documentation on IOC3, HEART, Impact (MardiGras?), and Odyssey. On the other hand, there are open-source operating systems which run on this hardware already, and may be a usable source of information.