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MulTI 0.1 Released
Posted by Michael on 22 June 2006, 15:28 GMT

[MulTI 0.1alpha] Nick Tarleton has released MulTI 0.1alpha for the TI-89. MulTI is a "dynamic-translating emulator" for the 83+, which means that it is able to run certain 83+ assembly programs (such as Falldown) at full speed on a TI-89. It does this by dynamically translating Z80 assembly instructions into 68k as they are encountered. MulTI is still in a stage of early development, but it looks like it will become a great way to run 83+ games on your 89.

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Re: MulTI 0.1 Released
anykey  Account Info
(Web Page)

Very nice! But when will I be able to run 89 games on my 83?!

Reply to this comment    22 June 2006, 16:17 GMT


Re: Re: MulTI 0.1 Released
TBOL3  Account Info

Never, I don't think the 83 has the hardwear specs needed to run the cool games, and the others, are already availible in ti-83

Reply to this comment    23 June 2006, 01:50 GMT


Re: Re: Re: MulTI 0.1 Released
anykey  Account Info
(Web Page)

I know, I know. But I can dream, can't I? :D

Reply to this comment    23 June 2006, 16:20 GMT


Re: Re: Re: Re: MulTI 0.1 Released
Mike Slopsema  Account Info

Acculy it might not be that far off, there are a few programmers working on windows utilities that can recompile 68k to z80 and to binary and to Hex, so soon any program might be able to run on any ti devise

Reply to this comment    26 June 2006, 18:26 GMT


Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: MulTI 0.1 Released
burntfuse  Account Info
(Web Page)

Um, no. Just because a piece of 68k assembly can be translated to Z80 assembly doesn't mean 89 programs will be able to run on the 83+. For one thing, the memory map, peripherals, etc. are COMPLETELY different. Even if that didn't matter, however, the Z80 is much less powerful than the 68000, the 83+'s processor is run at a lower speed than the 89's processor IIRC, and translated code will most likely run like crap anyways (because the processor architectures are so different) so anything written for the 89 would be unusable on the 83+.

Reply to this comment    26 June 2006, 19:36 GMT


Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: MulTI 0.1 Released
Nick Tarleton  Account Info

Most programs (at least trivial ones) probably wouldn't need that much CPU. The real problem is that the Z80 is 8/16-bit and the 68K is pure 32-bit, and it's much easier to emulate a lower-bit machine on a higher-bit one. Sorry.

Reply to this comment    26 June 2006, 23:55 GMT


Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: MulTI 0.1 Released
Lewk Of Serthic  Account Info

Not even mentioning the difference in screen resolution...

Reply to this comment    27 June 2006, 04:22 GMT


Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: MulTI 0.1 Released
burntfuse  Account Info
(Web Page)

And all the other hardware. It's not easy to translate an output-to-port instruction from the 89 to an 83+ and have it do the same thing, especially since the memory's layed out differently.

Reply to this comment    27 June 2006, 20:02 GMT

Re: MulTI 0.1 Released
Sebastian Schmied Account Info

I think the ticalc staff held back the recent news to post them all at once :D

Reply to this comment    22 June 2006, 16:38 GMT


Re: Re: MulTI 0.1 Released
KermMartian  Account Info
(Web Page)

Yeah, I noticed this a bunch of days ago.

Reply to this comment    22 June 2006, 20:46 GMT

Re: MulTI 0.1 Released
lifeiscalc Account Info

Cool, I'm downloading this right now

Reply to this comment    22 June 2006, 16:48 GMT

Re: MulTI 0.1 Released
Alex M  Account Info
(Web Page)

Beautiful, I'm downloading it right now. :) I wonder if grayscale ASM programs are supported (with grayscale).

- Alex

Reply to this comment    22 June 2006, 16:57 GMT


Re: Re: MulTI 0.1 Released
Nick Tarleton  Account Info

No, I believe they all use interrupts, which are not yet supported.

Reply to this comment    22 June 2006, 19:31 GMT

Re: MulTI 0.1 Released
majykbob  Account Info

Well, the app itself does work on my TI-89 Titanium, but the jar application doesn't seem to work. (But, that may just be my machine.) It seems to fail saying:

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: convert/jar

Reply to this comment    22 June 2006, 17:49 GMT


Re: Re: MulTI 0.1 Released
majykbob  Account Info

Ok. Nevermind. I got the Java app to work. Works nicely! Though support is low, it is a first release after all. Works nice on my Titanium. ZTetris almost works but is filled with squares (I've seen these squares sometimes on a normal 83+ so, it probably isn't too far from working.)

Reply to this comment    22 June 2006, 18:02 GMT

Re: MulTI 0.1 Released
burntfuse  Account Info
(Web Page)

This is impressive, I'm surprised it can actually run stuff at full speed.

Reply to this comment    23 June 2006, 00:10 GMT


Re: Re: MulTI 0.1 Released
nyall Account Info
(Web Page)

The're are rom routines re-written in 68k asm for text display so that should be a source of significant speed increase.

Reply to this comment    24 June 2006, 23:47 GMT


Re: Re: Re: MulTI 0.1 Released
Nick Tarleton  Account Info

Text display is probably not the bottleneck in most programs. The speed is from dynamic translation, as explained in the README.

Reply to this comment    26 June 2006, 23:53 GMT


Re: Re: Re: Re: MulTI 0.1 Released
nyall Account Info
(Web Page)

*sigh*

Its a pet peeve when people argue specifics but not the concepts. You're right text display is probably not a bottle neck. But there are other functions written in 68k asm like ion put sprite and ion fast copy. These sound like bottle necks.

Anyways I think its incorrect to give all performance credit to dynamic translation when the emulator uses native versions of key functions

Reply to this comment    27 June 2006, 04:22 GMT

Re: MulTI 0.1 Released
Gustavo Saur.  Account Info

thats an amazing project! i hope they finish it.
good work

Reply to this comment    24 June 2006, 03:53 GMT

Re: MulTI 0.1 Released
jon hamm  Account Info

I tried it, but I couldn't get Super Mario to work on my calculator. On the other hand I have a titanium, and that probably has something to do with it.

Reply to this comment    26 June 2006, 15:09 GMT


Re: Re: MulTI 0.1 Released
Nick Tarleton  Account Info

I'm not aware of anything that would make it not work on the Titanium. Super Mario is probably just too advanced. I'll look into it.

Reply to this comment    26 June 2006, 23:53 GMT


Re: Re: Re: MulTI 0.1 Released
Lewk Of Serthic  Account Info

Assuming it was compiled with the latest version of TIGCC, it should work on the titanium just as well as HW2.

Reply to this comment    27 June 2006, 04:25 GMT

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