Coldfire - Binary Compatible

[Louis Dias]

I'm pretty sure that when I looked up Coldfire tools that Freescale had a binary analyzer/converter that could take a 68K binary and make it CF-native.

Regardless, perhaps the first step should be recompiling 68k AROS to Coldfire.

[Louis Dias]

Why couldn't a 68K be virtualized and then fed the binary, then the virtual68k could make the determination and in the background, the app is repackaging the binary in a Coldfire-compatible way.  The resultant binary could then be run natively.

Or someone could make a 68k->Coldfire compiler...or a 68k dis-assembler->CF instruction converter->Coldfire re-assembler->Colfire compiler.

[Louis Dias]

bloodline wrote:

Piru wrote:
@bloodline

As far as I can tell he didn't, he wants separate, native binaries:

The resultant binary could then be run natively.

Yes you are quite right, he did imply that.

I really can't understand the obsession many on this site have for the coldfire... If I was starting a project, I choose either an ARM or a x86... depending upon the application.

Yes that's what I meant.
Sort of like a JIT, but not actually executing code, just analyzing it's execution, marking offsets and translating into CF compatible version.  If one 68K instruction has to be emulated by 4 CF instructions, then all jump/branch offsets have to be moved up 3 bytes/words thereafter.

The "obsession" with 68K/CF is that if Commodore were to make an A5000, it would be running a Coldfire cpu.  People are looking for a true upgrade path along the "classic" hardware lines.

Have you seen the NatAmi board with the AGA+ chipset?