FUSION - SOFTWARE MAC EMULATION |
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FUSION is a multitasking, colour Macintosh emulation. | Minimum Requirements:
Recommended Minimum Configuration:
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FUSION supports Apple's virtual memory when using an Amiga that has an MMU present (68030/68040/68060). The Macintosh MMU usage is so complex that rather than patching the existing resources, Microcode Solutions wrote all new routines, which also allows the 68060 to support virtual memory (which is not possible on any real Macintosh). The virtual memory is system friendly, allowing the Amiga more CPU time (which makes programmed I/O devices transfer data quicker). FUSION supports AHI! Microcode Solutions has been working to help test and debug AHI, so that 16 bit audio could be used with a Macintosh emulation. We have succeeded! Using AHI, it is possible that standard Amigas have simulated 16 bit audio (14 bit actual with 16 bit simulation routines). The results are incredible. For those of you who thought that 16 bit audio was only twice as good as 8 bit audio, you're in for a surprise. The only down side of using AHI is that the amount of overhead required by AHI takes about 20% of the speed away from the emulation. We expect this to change with future releases of AHI. Microcode Solutions is also working on supporting AHI's audio input routines, as well as standard parallel port digitizers for Macintosh audio input (note: this support will not be available in the first release of FUSION, but will be available as a free upgrade). The most technical feature of FUSION is its ICP (Inner-Communications Port). There is a a virtual link between the Amiga and the Macintosh while the emulation is running. This link allows any programmer to access any function normally available to Macintosh programmers. One of the built-in uses of the ICP is the availability of ALL Macintosh volumes on the Amiga side. This includes multi-volume partitions. The devices become AmigaDOS compatible, and no additional handler or filesystem is required. So, it will be possible to use your favorite file copying tool (DirectoryOpus is our particular favorite) to copy, delete, rename, etc. files on any Macintosh partition, and all from the Amiga side. Microcode Solutions will be providing to the public, a complete programmer's package (assembly code only) that will detail the use of the ICP. It will be possible to do some neat things using the ICP, such as playing QuickTime movies on your Amiga's Workbench, using the Macintosh to convert or play the data. Likewise, it would be possible to have an Adobe PhotoShop(TM) plug-in available to an Amiga image processing program. The ICP is bi-directional, so programmers could write Macinotosh based programs that used Amiga library functions too. The possibilities of the ICP are endless!
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