Emulation vs. Original Hardware

[Leon]

I still don't get what the deal is with FPGA. Is it real hardware shrunk down considerably thanks to all the progress technology has made over the last 40 years or is it just emulation rebranded? Because if it's the latter then I'll stick to free software thank you very much. I have seen a bunch of Youtube videos on the topic but as I understand it the faults that are inherently there in emulation are still kinda there? What's the point then?

Field programmable gate array=FPGA, basically it's hardware that can minic other hardware, in this case, it could borderline perfectly mimic the cpu of the nes for example.

 

[ThirdEidolon]

I still don't get what the deal is with FPGA. Is it real hardware shrunk down considerably thanks to all the progress technology has made over the last 40 years or is it just emulation rebranded? Because if it's the latter then I'll stick to free software thank you very much. I have seen a bunch of Youtube videos on the topic but as I understand it the faults that are inherently there in emulation are still kinda there? What's the point then?

that's literally exactly what it is. it has the same accuracy in terms of input lag as original hardware and looks exactly the same on a crt screen. and rather than owning multiple consoles, you can downsize a bit and it works with roms. at its core, it is hardware emulation. not software.

Post automatically merged: Yesterday at 3:00 AM

Field programmable gate array=FPGA, basically it's hardware that can minic other hardware, in this case, it could borderline perfectly mimic the cpu of the nes for example.

close enough that no one can tell the difference, basically. yeah.

 

[Clippy]

Field programmable gate array=FPGA, basically it's hardware that can minic other hardware, in this case, it could borderline perfectly mimic the cpu of the nes for example.

that's literally exactly what it is. it has the same accuracy in terms of input lag as original hardware and looks exactly the same on a crt screen. and rather than owning multiple consoles, you can downsize a bit and it works with roms. at its core, it is hardware emulation. not software.

Post automatically merged: Yesterday at 3:00 AM

close enough that no one can tell the difference, basically. yeah.

Ah, so instead of providing a translation layer between whatever instruction set a console has and an x86/x64 CPU it simply tries to execute said instruction set natively, thus reducing at least some of the overhead?

If I've got it right then it sounds like a pretty efficient idea. Gotta ask about the downsides now, since it's not like FPGA has taken the world by storm so there's gotta be a catch. My guess would be cost of R&D and, well, purchase at least as far as the end user is concerned.

 

[Leon]

Ah, so instead of providing a translation layer between whatever instruction set a console has and an x86/x64 CPU it simply tries to execute said instruction set natively, thus reducing at least some of the overhead?

If I've got it right then it sounds like a pretty efficient idea. Gotta ask about the downsides now, since it's not like FPGA has taken the world by storm so there's gotta be a catch. My guess would be cost of R&D and, well, purchase at least as far as the end user is concerned.

The downsides are cost and efficiency basically, notice how modern games run like garbage?
Most modern games run on unreal engine 5, games made in older or custom engines will usually run better.
Basically, being able to do alot means you need alot more work to do it and it costs more, both financially and performance wise to get it to work.

FPGA's are quite popular in many fields, but system preservation is a niche within a niche when it comes to this stuff.
I believe there's also a maximum circuitry limit which is why you don't see them for stuff like ps3 being made in FPGA's, the overhead would be tremendous if it's even possible.

 

[ATenderLad]

Ah, so instead of providing a translation layer between whatever instruction set a console has and an x86/x64 CPU it simply tries to execute said instruction set natively, thus reducing at least some of the overhead?

My understanding is most gains are a result of the different components being emulated individually, since the FPGA is programmed to reproduce all of them. Instead of your CPU interpreting everything on it's lonesome, an FPGA SNES core has the all the different parts, like the DSP and PPU working simultaneously.

MiSTer is still kinda niche to be something I *need*, or at least I don't feel compelled to spend the money to get setup, but the work put in by the various core developers is absolutely praiseworthy.