Virtual Machine Brings X86 Linux Apps To ARMv7 Devices 61
DeviceGuru writes Eltechs announced a virtual machine that runs 32-bit x86 Linux applications on ARMv7 hardware. The ExaGear VM implements a virtual x86 Linux container on ARMv7 computers and is claimed to be 4.5 times faster than QEMU, according to Eltechs. The VM is based on binary translation technology and requires ARMv7, which means it should run on mini-PCs and SBCs based on Cortex-A8, A7, A9, and A15 processors — but sadly, it won't run on the ARM11 (ARMv6) SoC found on the Raspberry Pi. It also does not support applications that require kernel modules. It currently requires Ubuntu (v12.04 or higher), but will soon support another, unnamed Linux distro, according to Eltechs, which is now accepting half price pre-orders without payment obligation.
Re:Same people as...? (Score:5, Interesting)
I wonder if they are some of the same people as these (reading about theiur team it does not sound unlikely): http://www.embedded.com/electronics-news/4397737/X86-emulation-coming-to-ARM-processors [embedded.com]
Well, that link speaks of people from Elbrus, and this page from Eltechs' web site [eltechs.com] says "The MCST Binary Translation Team has 200+ man-year experience in developing binary translators. They implemented a number of x86 to e2k (a Russian CPU)". The "e2k" is probably the Elbrus 2000 [wikipedia.org], for which they implemented an x86-to-native binary translator. The MCST [wikipedia.org] (Moscow Center of SPARC Technologies) referred to by the Elbrus 2000 page is probably the same MCST referred to by the Eltechs page.
So, yes, probably the same people.
Aaand...obsolete. (Score:3, Interesting)
How about converting the binary directly?
X86->LLVM IR->anything:
http://infoscience.epfl.ch/rec... [infoscience.epfl.ch]
Opensource, too. repository:
https://dslabgit.epfl.ch/git/s... [dslabgit.epfl.ch]
(checkout revgen)
has anyone tried it?
Re:still slow (Score:5, Interesting)
Maybe it is just me but when I see these things, I sometimes get crazy ideas. And I think:
Might as well translate into LLVM bitcode and recompile the code:
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.p... [phoronix.com]
Hell, maybe it's even faster if you compile the LLVM bitcode with emscripten and use asm.js to run into the browser. :-)