mclane wrote: ↑Sun Dec 08, 2019 8:34 am
How do you let modern programs run on 68030 hardware ?
I have made a cross-compiler for 68k architecture. I took Cfish 8 and compiled it for 68030 linux target using gcc.
I wanted to explore a thought experiment, that if programmers circa 1990 had known about software advances 25 years into the future, how much stronger would their programs be on their 1990 hardware against period top programs. The only problem is I do not own any 1990 top programs (or top dedicated machines) to test. I sold all my Fidelity period machines but even they were not in the top league like Mephisto. I could not even test against Chessmaster 2100 because I only had one 1990 machine (Mac IIsi) and Cfish 8 ran under a linux initramfs while Chessmaster needed Mac OS 7. I couldn't run both at the same time.
The solution is to play a skype (or ICQ) match or something with someone who has a 1990 top chess machine, and who is willing to waste the time playing some "standard" games. Or, get the machine in a state where it can play on FICS. That would mean getting a more full Linux or NetBSD to run on the Mac IIsi which is a lot more work.
But as Bob suggests, knowledge of future software advances would more likely have been optimized, not just compiled in C. Maybe they would have used assembler to be more efficient. SF is written in C++ which would be bloatware in 1990, even when translated into C. But I rationalized as follows, "Even if Cfish is bloatware in 1990, and not optimized, it will be the same as if it were running on even older hardware, a kind of handicap. So in reality, SF8 running on 68030 @20 Mhz might be the same as an ASM Fish running on 68000, 12 Mhz. All the better.
The project is on the back burner at the moment, but I intend to pick it up again.