EmulationOnline is a small team dedicated to both researching and developing emulators for classic computer or gaming systems.
Studying classic systems provides a way to discover clever optimization and design techniques that were more necessary for slower hardware of the past.
Building emulators for these systems allows us to test our understanding of these systems. It also allows us to preserve the experience of interacting with these systems, long after the original hardware stops functioning.
One example of our research is the Chiplab, where we develop a simulated environment around real integrated circuits. These chips are then networked and made available for anyone to use through the browser. This allows collecting very detailed information about the functionality of classic chips. Anyone can devise an experiment to run against a chip, submit, and observe the results thanks to this platform.
For an example, see: the 6502 chiplab.
While the Chiplab makes it possible to devise and run experiments against old integrated circuits / chips, modeling allows us to attempt to digitally recreate these chips.
This allows for the recreation of perfect reproductions, sometimes called “Digital Twins”.
Traditionally, information about classic systems is collected on a community wiki. While this makes it easy for anyone to contribute, English is not a good tool for unambiguously capturing the behavior of these systems. Code is.
Unlike typically emulator projects, the goal of the modeling projects is to perfectly reproduce the behavior of various circuits. Precision and accuracy are more important than speed, as these are not intended to run in real time.
For an example, see The 6502 model. Open to contributions!.
Understanding these classic systems is a lot of work, and we are a small team. We want anyone interested in these systems to be able to contribute. To help make emulator development accessible, we produce articles describing how these classic systems work. We also document the development of our research platform, providing a closer work at the electronics for these systems.
Want to get in touch? Send us an email at [email protected]