FYI: Status update from one of the PA-RISC emulator companies, forwarded by
permission.  This company (Software Resources International, a.k.a. - SRI)
is represented in the group.  So, any comments, questions, concerns, or
feedback of any type will go directly to them.

Thanx,
        Jon

-----Original Message-----
From: Robert Boers [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Monday, October 14, 2002 7:40 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Cc: Dogan Baser
Subject: PA-RISC emulator design planning


Jon,

As mentioned a few weeks ago, a short update on our HP3000 plans. After an
internal meeting we have decided to go ahead in principle with the emulator
design. For this purpose we will take up HP on their offer to provide
pointers to documentation and to answer a series of technical questions.

A decision to go ahead with the design is not yet a decision to put a
product on the market, which - in our opinion - is premature. Our experience
with the VAX emulator is that there is no market until sales of new
equipment has stopped for at least a year. This in spite of the very 'vocal'
opinions I have seen in the OpenMPE forum (and also from the similar VAX
community in the past). Also, emulator purchases are driven by corporate
needs, not by individual enthousiasts. The many 'first hour' companies
testing the VAX emulator prototype generated an insignificant % of revenue.

Initially we will focus in R&D on a high performance CPU implementation
(simple interpretation will not work well for a RISC CPU) and a few basic
components so that we can publish a prototype for tests at large. The latter
will not be before summer 2003 though. When we have a more detailed R&D plan
I will update you again.

Best regards, Robert