undefined | Better HN

0 pointsgregschlom6y ago0 comments

A bit of hair splitting, but technically it's an emulator, not a VM, since it's just simulating the CPU using javascript in your browser.

0 comments

7 comments · 2 top-level

mycall6y ago· 3 in thread

It is a base64 encoded highly optimized x86 assembly in DOSBox emulator inside a Javascript VM Chrome browser inside my Windows 10 Sandbox Nested Hyper-V VM inside VMware Workstation inside my Windows 10 machine.

SomeoneFromCA6y ago

Yeah, and then CPU which translates x86 code into uOPs.

scubbo6y ago

There's always a relevant xkcd: https://xkcd.com/676/

anonexpat6y ago

It’s turtles all the way down.

monocasa6y ago· 2 in thread

Emulators are VMs too.

eru6y ago

Well, depends a bit on what definitions you use.

For example there's VM in the sense of JVM. But there's also in VM in the sense of Xen (VM) vs Docker (not a VM).

And probably a few more slightly different usages.

monocasa6y ago

Those are both VMs in the same sense. A VM creates an abstract, indirect implementation of a computing system. Sometimes that's with a lot of hardware offload as in Xen or picojava. Sometimes that's with a JIT as in HotSpot, orginal VMWare, or Transmeta. Sometimes that's just with an interpreter like the original JVM or Dosbox.

They're all virtual machines whether they're running code originally meant for execution on hardware or not.

1 more reply

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse