MIX

posted in Emulator Release by swampgas on Sep 28th, 2001

Chris Gayler writes:
I have written a new emulator for the MIX computer, an old and rather odd computer described in The Art of Computer Programming by Donald E. Knuth. Two sample programs (roms) are included. Source for the roms and the emulator are included, and everything, except perhapse the two speed files, are in the public domain. It runs on DOS, but could easily be compiled on a number of operating systems. I suppose the name "frink" will do for now.
So what the heck is a MIX? He also includes a brief tutorial:
Mix is a mythical computer "invented" by Donald E. Knuth for the purpose of illustrating concepts in The Art of Computer Programming. To my knowledge no one has ever actually built a MIX computer, but several simulators (aka emulators) have been written. This seems kind of odd, but you'd probably understand if you read Volume 1 of TAOCP. The MIX computer itself is very primative, at least compared to todays computers, but when it was first described in 1968 (but probably developed in the early sixties) it was among the more advanced computers, even if it was just imaginary. In more recent years Knuth has decided to switch from MIX to MMIX, a RISC design not at all like MIX, for his upcomming volumes of TAOCP. So why emulate it? TAOCP presents several important and confusing examples in MIX, and asks its readers to write their own MIX programs. For any of this an emulator almost certainly necessary. Like I said, if you've read TAOCP you'd probably know.
For more info, check out the entire text included. Download from the newly created MIX emulators.