Simplicity Betrayed.

The article discusses computer emulating systems, providing examples of how even a relatively primitive system such as the TRS-80 can prove to have unexpected subtleties and complications which make an exact simulation difficult to achieve. A comparison is drawn to the Java Virtual Machine, which is...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Published in:Communications of the ACM Vol. 53; no. 6; pp. 52 - 59
Main Author: PHILLIPS, GEORGE
Format: Article
Published: Association for Computing Machinery Jun2010
Subjects:
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
Description
Summary:The article discusses computer emulating systems, providing examples of how even a relatively primitive system such as the TRS-80 can prove to have unexpected subtleties and complications which make an exact simulation difficult to achieve. A comparison is drawn to the Java Virtual Machine, which is said to embody related concepts in a more forward-looking context. The code needed to create a correct emulation of a diagonal line is analyzed by way of example, which involves floating-point numbers, central processing unit cycles, and cycle-wasting subroutines.