Compaq: Binary Translation and Software Emulation

United States

| About AMT
| Migration Tools FX!32 FreePort Express DECmigrate
| Performance Tools
| Documentation & White Papers

Binary translation and software emulation bridge old and new architectures quickly and without recompiling source code. You can keep your investment in current software applications and move to Alpha at the same time. While an application is being ported to native Alpha code, the same application can already be up and running on your new Alpha systems. What do the terms mean?

Binary translation | Imagine you're translating a French story into English. When you finish your assignment, you have created a story written in English that says the same thing as the story written in French. Binary translation is like this French assignment. A binary translator changes an executable program for one computer architecture into an executable program for a different computer architecture. You run the translated program on the new platform.

Software emulation

Imagine you work for the United Nations as an interpreter. The French ambassador delivers a speech and you interpret what he's saying in English, as he's saying it. Software emulation is like this kind of interpretation. A software emulator interprets binary instructions for a foreign architecture and, in real time, generates equivalent instructions for the native architecture. The program itself hasn't changed.

FreePort Express and DECmigrate are binary translators. DIGITAL FX!32 uses a unique combination of translation and emulation techniques (see the DIGITAL FX!32 white paper for details).

| Click to send feedback

privacy and legal statement