Re: [Qemu-discuss] virtualize sparc developer workstation?

[Jerry Stuckle]

On 7/5/2014 8:33 AM, Dennis Luehring wrote:
> (i also post this question to gmane.comp.emulators.qemu)
> 
> i want to virtualize (under a linux x86 host) my noisy sparc workstation
> with the help of qemu and want to know if its possible to
> get an system image to run or what other options available
> for sparc virtualization
> 
> im developing a low-traffic network communication software
> and sparc is one of my test platforms
> 
> is the sparc emulation good enough for
> (low-traffic) network communication tests?
> 
> my current system specs:
> -SUN Ultra 10 SPARC Workstation
> -384 MB RAM
> -Operating System: Solaris 10 November 2006 - SunOS Release 5.10
> Generic_118833-33 64-bit
> -Desktop: CDE 1.6.3, X11 Version 6.6.2
> -Compiler: SunStudio 12 - Sun C/C++ v5.9 2007/05/03 (and gcc v.3.4.6)
> -Workstation-Info: SUNW,Ultra-5_10;sparc;sun4u
> 
> it would be nice to have the desktop running
> but i can compile & test my software fully on command line
> 
> questions are:
> -can i (just) boot an image of my machine into qemu?
> -what bios do i need - OpenBios, OpenBoot, original (how can i get this
> from my machine?)
> -use qemu git head or other version?
> 
> thx for any help
> 
> 
> 
> 

Dennis,

I've been testing cross-platform software for over 30 years.  One thing
I would never do is use an emulator (ANY emulator) for testing (except
maybe for early in the development cycle).

No emulator is perfect, and real hardware can operate slightly
differently than emulated hardware.  Even things like small timing
differences can cause problems - I've seen code which works on a system
running at one speed but not a faster (or slower) one.

Your SPARC may be noisy - but it's still the best platform for testing
SPARC software.

Jerry