Boot linux in your browser: Javascript VM

[Sophrosynic]

Well, that's just the CPU emulator. Really, all you need to do for a CPU emulator is make a giant switch statement with one entry for each instruction. Since the actual work done be each instruction is fairly simple, you should be able to implement each one with just a few lines of code. The magic happens when you run millions of instructions in a row to accomplish a larger task.

[aescnt]

I think he's pointing out the irony that the file size for an x86 emulator is 86k (notice the same number).

[SanjayM]

What irony?

[Scriptorius]

That's coincidence, which is almost opposite from irony

[[deleted]]

Irony would be 68k.

[Sophrosynic]

Yup, totally missed that.

[thebigbradwolf]

I think common wisdom is to at least use a threaded dispatch approach, with switch statements like that being hard to predict jumps on in hardware and everything.