Emulating a computer running MS-DOS
- by Richard
Writing emulators has always fascinated me. Now I want to write an emulator for an IBM PC and run MS-DOS on it (I've got the floppy image files).
I have good experience in C++ and C and basic knowledge of assembler and the architecture of a CPU. I also know that there are thousands of emulators out there doing exactly what I want to do, but I'd be doing this for pure joy only.
How much work do I have to expect? (If my goal is to boot DOS and create a text file with it, all emulated)
What CPU should I emulate ? Where can I find documentation on how the machine code is organized and which opcodes mean what, so I can unpack and execute them correctly with my emulator?
Does MS-DOS still run on the newest generations of processors? Would it theoretically be able to natively run on a 64-bit AMD Phenom 2 processor w/ a modern mainboard, HDD, RAM, etc.?
What else, besides emulating the CPU, could be an important factor (in terms of difficulty)? I would only aim for outputting / inputting text to the system via the host system's console, no sound or other more advanced IO etc.
Have you written an emulator yet? What was your first one for? How hard was it? Do you have any special tips for me?
Thanks in advance
