Newsgroups: rec.arts.int-fiction
From: "Ben A L Jemmett" <bal.jemmett@ukonline.co.uk>
Subject: Re: [OT] Graphical Virtual Machine?
X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2600.0000
X-Mimeole: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2600.0000
Sender: unknown@bj1084.resnet.bris.ac.uk (Address not verified)
Organization: Jemmett Glover Software Development
Lines: 23
Message-ID: <Gt17Gx.64I@bath.ac.uk>
X-Msmail-Priority: Normal
References: <a6qisi0248l@drn.newsguy.com> <a6qmlg$n6$1@reader2.panix.com> <a6r5l2$fn$1@slb1.atl.mindspring.net> <3c911d60$0$75458$45beb828@newscene.com> <a6r7l3$lh8$1@reader2.panix.com> <a6rn8k$9n5$1@foobar.cs.jhu.edu>
X-Priority: 3
Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2002 20:26:57 GMT
Path: news.duke.edu!newsgate.duke.edu!nntp-out.monmouth.com!newspeer.monmouth.com!uvsq.fr!feed.ac-versailles.fr!fu-berlin.de!server1.netnews.ja.net!hgmp.mrc.ac.uk!pegasus.csx.cam.ac.uk!bath.ac.uk!unknown
Xref: news.duke.edu rec.arts.int-fiction:101801

"L. Ross Raszewski" <lraszewski@loyola.edu> wrote in message
news:a6rn8k$9n5$1@foobar.cs.jhu.edu...
> Well, it's easy to get confused nowadays.  I've had professors who
> have stated for the record that a virtual machine means that code is
> compiled to an intermediate state for distribution, then compiled the
> rest of the way to native code by a JIT.

That's a somewhat odd definition...  According to an ancient dictionary of
computer science I had on the shelf, a VM is "a computer and its peripherals
that are simulated on another computer so the simulated computer has no
fixed memory size".  Again, a bit odd.

I think the main distinction between a VM in the sense of VMware and a VM in
the sense of the Z-machine is that the former runs using a technique called
'virtualisation', where the host CPU executes the guest code natively --
i.e. the virtualised instruction set is identical to the host's.  The
Z-machine uses emulation instead, since the instruction sets differ.
--
Regards,
Ben A L Jemmett.
(http://web.ukonline.co.uk/ben.jemmett/, http://www.deltasoft.com/)


