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Re: Binary compatibility between Linux and other OSes



> > SPARC Linux runes Sparc-Solaris executables and they works nice .
> Well - that figures, since the h/w platform is identical, and the POSIX
> takes care of all the rest (although it's not so simple)
> BUT -
> > Alpha Linux runes Alpha binaries and also Linux 80x86 binaries AFAIK.
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^                         ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> 
> ??? When we're talking about binaries, we're talking about (allmost)
> raw machine-language scripts! even if sources can (sometimes) be 
> compiled and linked on different platforms - with no changes, here 
> you're talking about raw assembly! It's not remotely possible that 
> 80x86 binaries would run on Alpha! think about all the differences in
> the assemblies of the two platforms, the interrupts, the exceptions
> handling mechanisms (which all the system-calls are based on) and so on...

You are basically correct, since Alpha Linux can never run x86 binaries.
However, an emulator has been developed that takes x86 binaries and
executes them on Alpha Linux - em86.

Shay

--
Shay Rojansky, roji@cs.huji.ac.il                 Finger for PGP public key



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