ArcEm - Archimedes Emulator
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ArcEm is an emulator for the Acorn Archimedes A400 series machines. It is not as well known
as its two rivals, Red Squirrel and Archie. This page hopes to rectify that. Unlike them,
ArcEm is open source, and runs on platforms besides Windows.
ArcEm can successfully run both Acorn's RISC OS 3.1 (and earlier) and ARM Linux. A ROM
and disk image for the latter is provided.
ArmEm is distributed under the GPL.
About the versions on different platforms:
X-Windows:
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This was the original platform for the emulator, developed by Dr. Dave Gilbert.
The emulator runs under Unix (including x86 Linux, ARM Linux and Mac OS X) using
the facilities of X-Windows.
RISC OS:
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ArcEm can run on later RISC OS machines such as StrongARM RiscPCs. This support
was written by Alex Macfarlane Smith, with help by Ian Jeffray and Peter Naulls.
Unsurprisingly, it is very slow. Perhaps in future, the emulator will be able
to use the native processor. The emulator only runs full-screen at present.
Windows:
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In a seperate effort, ArcEm support for Win32 was developed by eQRD.
This has now been integrated back into this version. The Windows GUI for ArcEm
is primitive and would benefit from an experienced Windows programmer.
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Obtaining ArcEm
ArcEm may be retrieved via CVS from
SourceForge. The module name is 'arcem'. The tag "version_100" references the current
release version.
Binary versions
are available for x86 Linux, RISC OS, and Windows.
Using ArcEm
Full usage information and ChangeLog are available in the
manual.
As distributed, ArcEm is set up to boot an ARM Linux ROM with
a disc image. It can also boot RISC OS 3.1 ROMs. Do NOT
ask me for a ROM image. I am not able to supply you with it. Anyone
doing so will be burnt at the stake.
Issues with ArcEm
Unfortunately, my time is very limited. I will not be able to respond to any
bug reports unless they are also accompanied by a source patch to fix the bug.
This may sound harsh, but I would rather avoid disappointment by being up front.
If your problem is insurmountable, I recommend you stick with one of the other emulators.
The Windows ArcEm GUI has many deficiencies - please don't email me about them,
as I'm well aware of them. Someone may have the enthusiasm to improve this.
Building ArcEm
Please tell me if you cannot get ArcEm to build using these instructions, or
if there are build failures.
X-Windows:
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With X development libraries installed, ArcEm should build out of the box. The
exception is if you have a big-endian system, in which case you need to make
a small change to the Makefile (documented near the top).
RISC OS:
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ArcEm builds with GCC. You should use the following command:
make SYSTEM=riscos-single
It is possible to build with Leo White's RiscXLib if you really want to make
an X Windows version under RISC OS, but that is beyond the scope of this guide.
Finally, it is also possible to cross compile it using
GCCSDK. e.g.:
CC=/home/riscos/cross/bin/gcc make SYSTEM=riscos-single
The desktop version of ArcEm has not been developed yet, and will not build.
Windows:
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ArcEm will build under Cygwin.
It builds a version which is indepedent of Cygwin (unlike the previous version of
ArcEm for Windows), so you will also need to ensure you have mingw-runtime library installed
(from Cygwin setup). Use the following command:
make SYSTEM=win
Additionally, ArcEm will build in VC++. Project files are provided for this in
the 'vc' directory. My experience with VC++ is limited, so forgive any follies.
This project is maintained by Peter Naulls.