x49gp (aka 50g with ARM emulation) Quick Start Guide

[Egan Ford]

Greetings C programmers, et al,

Eddie Dost has released an updated x49gp that works pretty well. The performance of HPGCC2 binaries on my 2.4GHz Macbook is 6x faster than my 50g at 75MHz. HPGCC3 binaries work as well.

I've been granted SVN access and have made few minor changes and created the following quick start guide:

http://x49gp.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/x49gp/README.QUICKSTART

I have only tested OS/X and Ubuntu. Cygwin (XP and Vista) does not
work, I'll try to have it working by Xmas.

x49gp is a 50g emulator (ARM and therefore Saturn). Features:

1. 50g emulation including SD card. As just a 50g emulator for Linux
   and OS/X it is very nice with very fast launch times and low CPU
   utilization. I've replaced my WINE+EMU48 setup for this as a general
   purpose 50g calculator.
   
2. Can run ARM binaries. HPGCC2 and HPGCC3 tested. Push/pop from
   stack works too.
   
3. Persistent memory just like 50g.
   
4. Can flash memory. I've tested 2.09 and HPGCC3 ROMs.
   
5. Backup/Restore from virtual SD card works. Virtual SD card can be manipulated from guest OS.
   

Known Limitations:

1. Cannot write to port 2. Libraries will eat up your RAM. Fine for
   HPGCC2/3. Not so good for EQNLIB and EQNDATA. I have two 50g setups one for HPGCC2/3 with full RAM, and another for general 50g desktop calculator used with EQN* loaded.
   
2. HPGCC2/3 SD I/O unstable. More testing needed to identify what
   works what does not.
   

I've only got about 24 hours with this, expect answers to questions
and other support issues to be slow.

Edited: 14 Dec 2008, 4:53 p.m.