FX!32

FX!32 is a software emulator program that allows x86 Win32 programs to execute on Digital Alpha/NT systems. Released in 1996, FX!32 was developed by Digital to support their Alpha processors. At the time, there was a belief that RISC processors such as Alpha, were likely to replace x86 Intel-based processors, due to a more efficient and simplified architecture, that could reach higher clock speeds. The one thing that held Alpha back was application compatibility with existing Win32 x86 applications.

Emulation has been around for a while as a concept, but FX!32 went one stage further, analysed the way programs worked, and in real time, developed "DLL" files of native Alpha code that the application could call upon next time it ran. This way even in the 1.0 release, FX!32 achieved speeds with Win32 x86 applications of 40-50% native, with 70% projected as likely with improved optimization.

FX!32 was a remarkable piece of clever coding, that, had Intel not found a way to emulate an x86 processor and move internal computation to a more RISC-like architecture, might very well have become the normal way to run legacy Win32 x86 applications, as the world migrated to the Alpha chip architecture.

External links

* [http://csdl.computer.org/comp/mags/mi/1998/02/m2056abs.htm FX!32: A Profile-Directed Binary Translator]
* [http://www.usenix.org/publications/library/proceedings/usenix-nt97/full_papers/chernoff/chernoff.pdf DIGITAL FX!32: Running 32-Bit x86 Applications on Alpha NT] from the Proceedings of the USENIX Windows NT Workshop, Seattle, Washington, August 1997
* [http://www.hpl.hp.com/hpjournal/dtj/vol9num1/vol9num1art1.pdf DIGITAL FX!32: Combining Emulation and Binary Translation] from the Digital Technical Journal, Volume 9 Number 1, 1997
* [ftp://ftp.compaq.com/pub/products/alphaserver/nt/fx32v1-5.ZMX FX!32 v1.5 download] - Rename to .exe extension.