Re:Linux 4.17-rc1: “We removed more lines than we added”
by rbanffy on Monday April 16, 2018 @03:07PM
(#16851783)
I don't think x86 would be a particularly attractive target for emulation in this case - x86 hardware is readily available and testing is much easier than, say, SuperH or H8.
Intel probably has internal tools that (somewhat) precisely emulate their chips and it'd probably be very hard to persuade them to share, but they seem committed to make sure Linux runs well on their gear, so it's probably not a huge problem.
I think of this as a way to keep the supported architectures as supported as possible even when actual hardware is not readily/easily (or yet) available for testing. One day, when x86 is not as easy to come by as today, it could prove useful.
It's good to keep the software running on more than one platform, as it exposes some bugs that can easily elude us. Also, emulators offer the best possible observability for debugging. If they are cycle-accurate then, it's a dream come true.
Video game emulators are possible because there is only one (or a very small number of) hardware configuration(s) for each console. Emulators for mobile development are possible because they simulate only the APIs, not the actual physical hardware, down to the level of interrupts and registers.