modified on request 7/16/05 (m/d/y) Still a draft... 2do: broken links, missing links, more hints... still unfinished

Don't laugh! I know somebody who smashed the space bar of his iMac that way — involuntarily falling asleep.

Emulators are the Poor Man's Hardware

Nowadays affordable hardware has reached a performance that things are possible you formerly read at most in science fiction novels. One of these possibilities is to »fake« a CPU of an other computer to run its native OS. Those simulations (or emulations if you prefere) are not only for testing before production — they may be powerful enough to replace real hardware. For example (I was told) the calculators HP-39G+, -48GII, and -49G+ use an ARM-CPU to emulate their predecessors' CPU (a Saturn offspring) and use the almost unchanged firmware of the HP-39G, -48GX, and -49G respectively.

An other aspect of those emulators: they may extend the memory of «antiquely» computers and calculating devices by their virtual but working representation, working as good as the original — sometimes even faster. In the following list I like to show you what I found worth to mention. It is sorted by device in the categories

Pocket Calculators (Casio, HP, Sharp, and TI),
IBM mainframes, and
unequaled.

and shows which emulator/simulator I know, how to get an OS to run on it, and more if applicable. In any case there is no software and no operating system for download on this page, I list only some information.

Please bear in mind that resultant from the limited focus on my interests this is a very personal listing. If not indicated otherwise the emulator runs under M$-Windoze. The list is probably incomplete regarding emulators for PalmOS and WinCE. Please apologize if you are not mentioned here also you did something similar or do not find what you are looking for.

Emulators for Pocket Calculators

Because in most calculators the OS is in a ROM, I use here the expression ROM for OS but realy mean a «ROM-image» what is a file with a copy of the OS-ROM's contents.

Emulators for Casio Pocket Calculators

Did you know that graphing calculators is an invention of Casio? In 1985 Hideshi Fukaya and his development team at Casio Japan invented the first graphing calculator, the Casio FX-7000.
I did not search very extensively for emulators of Casios so I may list only the following item which gives a good impression and the posability to compare with other graphing calculators.

ClassPad 300: At http://classpad.net/ you get a CP Manager Limited Version that works about 5 month and/or permits 1000 program starts. Then only the data link to a real device remains operational.

Emulators for HP Pocket Calculators

First address for information about those calculators is www.hpmuseum.org, first address for software running on some of those calculators is www.hpcalc.org. See also my special page about the emulation of the Pioneer series calculators.

HP-01

currently I know no emulator for HP's wristwatch but I guess a future version of Eric Smith's Nonpareil could do it.

HP-10B

a sad story, see here...

HP-10Bii

directly from HP but for educational purpose only.
HP-10BII version from Sébastien Carlier, calculator's ROM concealed in the EXE. More...
www.moravia-consulting.com once offered a "PC 10BII simulator" (Version 1.0, Build date: Jan 21 2003). It does not show HP copyright at startup, anyway implausible that it is "only" a good simulation.

HP-10C

Nonpareil could do it, but currently there is no ROM published.
Voyager for VM/ESA could probably emulate it too, alas without ROM it's not funny.

HP-11C

Nonpareil for Linux and Win32, ROM comes with it.
HP-1XE by HrastProgrammer for HP-48GX, -49G, and -49G+.
Voyager for VM/ESA, ROM in Nonpareil bundle.

HP-12C

same as for a. m. HP-11C.
For Nonpareil here a photo as skin and an example routine for it.

HP-14B

an other sad story, see here...

HP-15C

same as for a. m. HP-11C.

HP-16C

same as for a. m. HP-11C.

HP-17B

Emu42 from Christoph Gießelink runs on Win32, Pocket PC 2002, and Mobile 2003 SE. The ROM you have to migrate yourself from the calculator you own. More...

HP-17Bii

same as for a. m. HP-17B.

HP-17Bii+

directly from HP but for educational purpose only.
If you could do without it's currency converter you may »fake« it with the ROM of the a. m. HP-17Bii and a skin derived from a photo of the HP-17Bii+. More...

HP-18C

Christoph Gießelink's Emu28, alas I do not have a ROM for this one yet. More...

HP-19Bii

Emu42 may do it if you got a ROM (almost impossible w/o help from HP).

HP-20S

a sad story, see here...

HP-21

Nonpareil for Linux and Win32, ROM comes with it.

HP-21S

a sad story, see here...

HP-25

same as for a. m. HP-21.

HP-27S

Emu42 for Win32, Pocket PC 2002, and Mobile 2003 SE. The ROM you have to migrate yourself from the calculator you own. More...

HP-28C

Emu28, the ROM you have to migrate yourself from the calculator you own. More...

HP-28S

same as for a. m. HP-27S.

HP-32E

same as for a. m. HP-21.

HP-32Sii

an other sad story, see here...

HP-33C

Nonpareil for Linux and Win32, ROM comes with it.
Mike Tolcher offers an RPN Calc 33, which is a simulation of the user interface of the HP-33C and as such does not need a calculator ROM to run it.

HP-33S

directly from HP but for educational purpose only.

HP-34C

same as for a. m. HP-21.

HP-35

same as for a. m. HP-21.

HP-37E

same as for a. m. HP-21.

HP-38C, -38E

same as for a. m. HP-21.

HP-38G

Christoph Gießelink's version of Emu48 for Win32, Pocket PC 2002, and Mobile 2003 SE. The ROM you may migrate from the calculator you own or from Colin Croft. More...

HP-39G, -40G

Emu48 update for Win32, Pocket PC 2002, and Mobile 2003 SE. The ROM you may migrate from the calculator you own or from JYA or from Colin Croft. More...

HP-39G+

directly from HP but for educational purpose only.
you may »fake« it with the a. m. emulation of the HP-39G and a skin derived from a photo of the HP-39G+. More...

HP-41C/CV/CX

JF Garnier's Emu41 is the most complete emulator I know of the HP41-system and its peripheral HP-IL equipment. It runs on DOS, even on a HP100LX or in a WinDOSbox. IIRC few ROMs are included, else see www.hp41.org for a lot of plug-in ROMs too.
V41 of Warren Furlow, several ROMs and a lot of plug-in ROMs available.
Nonpareil for Linux and Win32, ROM comes with it. Includes a simulation of the HP82143A printer.
HP-41E by HrastProgrammer for HP-48S/SX/G/G+/GX, HP-49G, and Win32, the ROMs you have to migrate from the HP41 you own. Does Helios printer also (HP82143A, non-graphic).
HP-41X for HP-48GX, -49G, and -49G+, the ROMs you have to migrate from the HP41 you own. HP-41X is a modification of the HP-41's OS with about 4000 registers, 16 digits display and so on. Does HP82240A/B printer with graphics and HP-IL completely via RS232.
NutEm for VM/ESA, ROMs from one of the a. m. sources. 82143A simulation does no graphics.
RPNdemo from John Kennedy is an emulator in an other sense as all others here. From the manual: RPNDEMO is NOT intended to be an HP-41 simulator, but where possible the instruction set matches that of the HP-41 exactly. With few exceptions RPNDEMO includes most of the programming capabilities of the HP-41. This DOS program shows an animated view of the stack movements during operation. So it may help if you to explain RPN to a novice or for testing stack usage for a routine fragment. To see the animation on fast PCs you need to call it from a slow-down.BAT:
```
TP7P5FIX>nul
SLOW -f1 50000 -f2 30000>nul
RPNDEMO.EXE
```

Emulators for Sharp Pocket Computers

I did not search too extensively for emulators of Sharp devices. So I may list only two programs.

PC1450: Yves Maingoy offers an emulator for win32, ROM comes with it. Version 32 beta 1.03 shows menus in French only. I could not find a reason why it is still a beta version.
PC-1500: PC1500a by "Club des Sharpentiers" (Ph. Dupas and JF LaRoche) has a very good appearance, alas it is still a beta version. Menus in French only.
PC-1500A: see a. m. PC-1500.
Tandy PC2: see a. m. PC-1500. Skin shows "Radio Shack TRS-80".

Emulators for Texas Instruments Pocket Calculators

I did not search too extensively for emulators of TIs. So I may list only two programs, but one of them — "Virtual TI v2.5 beta 5" from Rusty Wagner — works with many different ROMs. I do not know any more where I have found all those ROMs, so I may only show the ROM version I know.

TI-82: vTI, ROM 19.0
TI-83: same emulator as TI-82, ROM 1.06, 1.07, and 1.10
TI-83 Plus: same emulator as TI-82, ROM 1.03, 1.12
TI-85: same emulator as TI-82, ROM 10.0
TI-86: same emulator as TI-82, ROM 1.2, 1.3, and 1.4
TI-89: same emulator as TI-82, ROM 1.00 and update, 2.03 and update, 2.05
TI-92: same emulator as TI-82, ROM 1.11 and 1.12
TI-92 Plus: same emulator as TI-82, ROM 1.01, 2.03, 2.05 and update
TI-95: TI95E by HrastProgrammer, an advice how to get the ROM is included.

Emulators for IBM Mainframes

It still makes me shudder that there exist emulators — some even attested by IBM — that act to the core like a "big iron", this basement filling machinery possibly cooled with water (hence »Big Blue«). When I read reports that it works flawlessly and is satisfactory in performance I deduce in reversal inference what unneeded power bear today's PCs. I hold in high esteem the creators of the two following emulators, which are published for free.

S/370, ESA/390, and z/Architecture

Hercules by Roger Bowler et. al., runs under Linux and Windows using Cygwin, or without Cygwin (beta versions only). License free OS: VM370 R6, MVS 3.8J, VM370 R6, OS/360 and a «MVS Tur(n)key System» from Volker Bandke.

Once I got into talk with a former IBMer about Hercules and he argued that there is no requirement for such an emulator because it needs only few bytes to build a 32x80 character screen and even with a slow connection it is favorable to have his data only at one location. He prefers to be linked via fast data line to the power of a real machine. (Therefore the headline of this page.)

ESA/390 (subset)

Dave Edwards wrote Sim390 — an emulator offering a subset of S390 functionality within 196 kB of one EXE only!!! (including a 3270 emulation) sufficient to run an almost complete MUSIC/ESA (Multi User System for Interactive Computing). The only reason for this emulator is to run this OS, which - in contrast to the emulator - takes several MB for the uncompressed files that mock the disks. Nevertheless it is good for many nice things (Web server, FTP client and server, password protect private property) so at least it is worth a test.
Additional remark: By its small size Sim390 would be the idal platform not only to distribute MUSIC but my NutEm in the world of Windoze, but I built the user interface with Fullscreen CMS which is not part of a free host OS yet. Hard cheese!

An Unparalleled Emulator

The title is probably not correct, but take a closer look at this finding that does not fit well in any of the a. m. classifications. I suppose it was pure nostalgia or the "hack value" in its proper sense that drove this project. It is a perfect example of the aspects of emulators I mentioned in the intro of this page.

Acorn 6502 Microcomputer Kit: acornEmulator by Mike Cowlishaw (yes! the "king" of REXX). The presentment of this emulator in the Internet let expect a masterpiece similar to most of the a. m. programs. But — frankly spoken — as I am not familiar with that 6502 it reminds me of "Brain Fuck" — you know that challenging programming language?

Read the legal stuff for this page.