by Mathias » Mon Oct 03, 2011 4:24 pm Mal7921 wrote:The thing to remember though is that the is backward compatibility and backward compatibility.
The STe is backward compatible with the ST range, however there are older programs that will not run. Same for the TT030 and the Falcon. These all use processors from the same family, with similar core instructions.
The firebee introduces a new processor into the mix, new hardware and in reality provides an emulation of older hardware, not the actual hardware itself, so it has to be expected that some software will not run.
Even the playstation 2 had trouble running some playstation 1 games, and that was "fully backward compatible" with older games, so if Sony with the resources at it's disposal has trouble making everything work, how can you expect a group of volunteers on the firebee to do any better?
Given time they may well do better, especially if more talented people join in and help test and complete things like the DSP emulation and other such sections, but until them all we can be is patient. Things improve, but rarely overnight, Windows Vista is a good example, lousy OS on launch but by the time Windows 7 launched it was a fairly reliable OS, even if it was still a mess in places and incompatible with many older applications.
The STe, TT and Falcon all had a hardware base to start development from, firebee did not. It had to be built from the ground up and any hardware for backward compatibility "programmed", which at least has helped with the process of chip fabrication. While Atari had to spend a lot of money designing and fabricating prototype chips which could not be re-used if anything was wrong, these guys could wipe the chip and start again, but the design process still takes a lot of time.
I suppose in future if you wanted ST compatibility to be improved, a complete ST could be built into the architecture, but that's up to the developers. But if you did that, where then do you draw the line?
Compatibility will be as good as it can be at that given time. As the system can be improved, the compatibility will also improve over time. I'm sure if the team had the resources of a large major hardware vendor, they would have this sorted and out of the door, but they don't. They do this off their own backs and give their time for us, the least we can do as a community is be patient and help wherever we can.
As for compatibility, if an application can run, the application is compatible and where one runs, others will follow.
Thanks Malcolm for that kind and true words! It is exactly what I feel, what I try to communicate. And I am glad that we as team are able to make you and others understand whats going on.
But I have to say, that most people are patient. 2 and 1/2 years ago I never thought that we willl recive so much positive feedback, even if we are slower than we expected in the beginning. Some people paid for example two years ago the complete FireBee and still do not put pressure on us. Thats graet! You all as community are great! And together we´ll do it.
. It shouldn't be too hard to find neon floating around 