From: ctm@ardi.com (Clifford T. Matthews)
Subject: Executor: Running Mac Programs on a NeXT
Organization: ARDI
Date: Sun, 27 Sep 92 21:01:27 GMT

Dear Folks,

Here's some information about Executor coming from the horses mouth.

Executor does not require any Macintosh ROMs nor the Macintosh System file.
It is built on ROMlib and ROMlib has been developed totally with clean
room techniques; we've disassembled no parts of the ROMs or the System File.
The speed coefficient of 6 to 20 times faster than a Mac IIci is incorrect.
When running Speedometer 3.01 under Executor on a 25MHz NeXTstation (i.e.
their original slab, not the new 33MHz or the as yet announced "nitro"),
you get the following numbers:  CPU: 26,  Graphics: 10.  However, the graphics
number is a best case.  Our current implementation uses only the prescribed
way to get bits from an application to a screen, and that's through Display
PostScript's bit map manipulating routines.  As such we have a few different
heuristics that we employ to speed things up.  One option is to delay updates
until GetNextEvent (or friends) is called.  In practice that is sufficient
for most programs and it is with that option on that we get the graphics
coefficient of 10.  NOTE: those numbers 26 and 10 are the number of times
faster Speedometer 3.01 under Executor on a 25MHz NeXTstation is than a
Macintosh Classic.  If you want to normalize them to a IIci, they come out
to about four and two respectively.

Detractors will be happy to know that currently Executor has many limitations
including: No Color, No Sound, No AppleTalk, No Desk Accessories and no
Script Manager Support.  In addition, some programs run very well (Word4/5 and
Excel3/4), some have quirks and some don't run at all.

However, we're real and we're doing a lot of cool work and people are using
our software to wean themselves from Macintoshes.  The NeXT has many features
that people want and that Apple is planning on putting into Pink.  However,
I'm not here to sell you on NeXT, Executor or Pink.

Furthermore, our goal is to make ROMs for clones and I can guarantee you that
such technology is around the corner, either from us or our competitors,
NuTek.  Our emulators will share the same technology that will be in our
ROMs.  Expect a great degree of compatibility and speed.  (The next release
of Executor, 1.3, is due out at the end of December and we'll provide an
option to write directly to the screen, bypassing the Display PostScript
bottleneck).

For non-68k based machines we're working on a synthetic CPU that uses
dynamic recompilation.  The synCPU has already been designed and much of
it has been implemented.   It will be available in a totally portable mode
initially using recompilation into interpretive code but will later support
a backend for popular architectures.  Since all of the traps will run at
native speed (ROMlib has already been brought up on mc88k, MIPS, VAX, Clipper,
80386 and other architectures), you can expect killer performance.

Thanks for your interest.

More information about Executor can be had by sending a request to
questions@ardi.com.  Be sure to mention that you can receive NeXTmail if
indeed you can.

	Clifford T. Matthews	ctm@ardi.com
	Founder and President
	Abacus R&D, Inc.	(505) 766-9115