---- Original Message ----
From: "Cortlandt Wilson" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, March 10, 2003 1:17 AM
Subject: [OPENMPE] Terminology (was MPE/iX Licensing and Distribution
for an Emulated Environment)

>> An e3000 is hardware (with integral firmware, of course)

> Correct me if I am wrong but HP 3000 & HP e3000 were always sold as a
> complete, hardware and software package.

Yes.

>  The HPe3000 therefore a system comprised of MPE/iX running on
> a specific configuration of PA-RISC hardware.

No, does not follow. I would think few if any people would be thrown by the
idea that the HPe3000 is the hardware. OTOH, to limit it to PA-RISC is to
limit it only to the CPU, without including all the particular I/O subsystems
supported, which an emulator must encompass. And what about firmware? I'd
imagine the HPe3000 has some firmware which an emulator might need to
emulate...

> There is a similar problem with the term "platform emulator".
> Definition: Platform.
> Computer Science. The basic technology of a computer system's
> hardware and software that defines how a computer is operated and
> determines what other kinds of software can be used.
> http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=platform

I'd agree on platform...

> HP has proposed a HP e3000 hardware emulator or simulator.    Not a
> platform emulator, not a HP e3000 emulator.

Have they? I thought HP were just debating how to make MPE available on its
own to people who wanted to run it on other HP hardware. And that, apart from
restricting this usage to non-native operation, they were pretty agnostic as
to what would be used to achieve this....

> Emulator is the most commonly used term.  If there is some technical
> consensus regarding the distinction between emulator and simulator I
> doubt it is one that even the average IT professional can explain.

By convention, a simulator is allowed to choose in what way it mimics the
thing being simulated. However, an emulator isn't.

So when a pilot trains for a transatlantic flight in a flight simulator, he
can climb out of it at the end, and still be in Spokane. If it was a flight
emulator, and worthy of the name, he'd climb out and find himself at Heathrow.

> That is why I suggest the best way to describe HP's proposal is: a
> license to run MPE/iX on a HPe3000 hardware emulator.    The terms
> platform emulator and HP e3000 emulator are confusing for this
> context.


Not: a license to run MPE/iX on an HPe3000 hardware and firmware emulator?

I'm happy with 'a license to run MPE/iX on an HPe3000 emulator' - I don't know
who would find that ambiguous....

--
Roy Brown
Posting with the OEnemy, tamed by OE-QuoteFix 1.18.3
http://jump.to/oe-quotefix