Would it be possible to make S60/N-Gage run on NIT?
 

Since I have no clue, I can ask without being laughed at, right? Is it possible even in theory for someone to build an S60 emulator that would run on the NIT? If it could be done, can you imagine e.g all those sweet N-Gage coming up on the N810? :)

Re: Would it be possible to make S60/N-Gage run on NIT?
 

Of course it's possible in theory. Technically you can make an emulator for just about any OS on any platform-- the issue is one of practicality, ie, how much of the emulation is pure software and what sort of hardware will be running it (don't expect to emulate a VAX on the 770 :D). In this case I would say a large part of it, and the emulator might run very poorly. But I don't know that for certain.

Re: Would it be possible to make S60/N-Gage run on NIT?
 

You mean I've been holding onto my VAX assembler books for nothing?

Re: Would it be possible to make S60/N-Gage run on NIT?
 

Feh. You think you're so special with your VAX assembler. Like we VAX VMS-Basic scripters were lowlifes. :p

Re: Would it be possible to make S60/N-Gage run on NIT?
 

Texrat, thanks! A broader question I had in mind the other day waz: wonder what Nokia is thinking in terms of integrating internet tablets to its Ovi, and other services? Wouldn't it be fantastic to be able to completely - and completely seamlessly manage - your Ovi stuff with an IT (sure, this is the easy part) but also play your N-Gage games ( some of them possibly online in a massive group), purchase music from the Nokia Music Store, save it on the IT, your Phone, PC.. I know much of this easy on paper but wonder how much they have done thinking in terms of how to make the experience as smooth as possible and maximize the strenghts of each device...

Re: Would it be possible to make S60/N-Gage run on NIT?
 

Symbian/S60 does not have to be emulated: it is already running on OMAP2420 chips in many Nokia phones. So, in theory, the tablets could run Symbian, just like their 7710 prototype.

Re: Would it be possible to make S60/N-Gage run on NIT?
 

Good to know. I was wondering "out loud" in that post. Working for Nokia has not made me an expert in S60 by any means. :o :D

Re: Would it be possible to make S60/N-Gage run on NIT?
 

I wouldn't want to replace the current OS (linux) with Symbian, but an emulator could be interesting.. emulators are interesting. Can't say I've heard about a symbian emulator though, not that I've looked hard.

Re: Would it be possible to make S60/N-Gage run on NIT?
 

You can always try to run the old Psion SIBO emulator in DOSbox. Although it was a pretty finnicky beast, and refused to run in either Windows' or even OS/2's dos boxen at the time.

It's not Symbian, but hey! it's an emulator, right?

Re: Would it be possible to make S60/N-Gage run on NIT?
 

This is something I've been thinking about myself. I think it would be a great idea to have an S60 emulator for the internet tablets and open it up to even more applications like with the Garnett VM.

Re: Would it be possible to make S60/N-Gage run on NIT?
 

You can have a Symbian/S60 simulator rather than emulator on these tablets. In other words, instead of emulating a separate CPU and platform, like emulators do, the simulator would just provide a bunch of Symbian libraries and a loader for Symbian executables. More or less like DOS compatibility layer in Windows or Linux compatibility layer in BSD and Solaris.

Re: Would it be possible to make S60/N-Gage run on NIT?
 

That's cool, fms. :-) How likely do you think it is that something like this would be done? If enough people asked for it, I wonder if Nokia would make it happen.

Re: Would it be possible to make S60/N-Gage run on NIT?
 

Heh heh, yeah. So what do you think? A weekend's work?

Re: Would it be possible to make S60/N-Gage run on NIT?
 

If I knew how to do this stuff, I'd certainly try to make it happen.

Re: Would it be possible to make S60/N-Gage run on NIT?
 

Probably not. A Nokia Engineer once told me that a typical 3rd Edition S60 phone contains a little shy of 100M lines of C/C++ code. Reverse-engineering and re-implementing that is going to take at least a couple of weekends...

(Disclaimer: I have no idea how accurate the 100M figure really is.)

Re: Would it be possible to make S60/N-Gage run on NIT?
 

Probably a few months, given access to Symbian source code and money.

Re: Would it be possible to make S60/N-Gage run on NIT?
 

I don't think that's a valid presumption, TBH!

http://catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

You've got to distinguish "can it be done" and "will it be done". The probability of us seeing an S60 emulator can be quantified by looking at the factors:

• Is there an existing open source S60 emulator which could be ported?
• Is the specification of S60 hardware open enough so that it could, in its entirety be emulated in qemu?
• Is there a mechanism to get hold of S60 images to run in such an emulator?
• Is the specification of the S60 API open enough so that it could be re-implemented from scratch, a la Wine?
• Is there a strong driver for it, either through the market or talented developers with both the inclination (i.e. the "itch") and the skills?

I don't know the answers to (m)any of these questions, but my gut says the answers are more "no" than "yes".

HTH,

Andrew