FEX-Emu 2308 Continues Striving To Be "The Greatest x86/x86-64 Emulator On Linux"

[phoronix]

Phoronix: FEX-Emu 2308 Continues Striving To Be "The Greatest x86/x86-64 Emulator On Linux"

The open-source FEX-Emu project continues advancing as an emulator to run x86/x86_64 Linux binaries on 64-bit ARM (AArch64), even for games, Valve's Steam Play / Proton, and other complex software. FEX-Emu 2308 is out today with more performance optimizations and other features implemented for this emulator...

https://www.phoronix.com/news/FEX-Emu-2308

[uid313]

This needs to have RISC-V support!

[MastaG]

They are progressing so fast. It's almost like a commercial project/product. Alyssa was employed by Valve right? Does it mean Valve has plans to run Steam on arm64 hardware in the near future?

[rmfx]

This is an amazing project that can be considered in the same vein as mesa Zink.
The best way of transitioning away from a old established standard is a software that can run it through transparent conversion on the new plateform.
I hope this gets as good as Apple Rosetta2 so that we can ditch x86 finally without any friction slowing down the process.

And yes indeed, a risc-v version is in need too.
Arm and risc-v will likely become the two competing ISAs that matter in the future.

edit: box86 is a similar project for those who are interested.

[raystriker]

I have a RK3588 powered SBC (well two actually) coming in a couple of months, can't wait to try fex-emu out.... but what should I use it for really? Doubt gaming on it will be any fun.

[EvilHowl]

This is an amazing project that can be considered in the same vein as mesa Zink.
The best way of transitioning away from a old established standard is a software that can run it through transparent conversion on the new plateform.
I hope this gets as good as Apple Rosetta2 so that we can ditch x86 finally without any friction slowing down the process.

And yes indeed, a risc-v version is in need too.
Arm and risc-v will likely become the two competing ISAs that matter in the future.

edit: box86 is a similar project for those who are interested.

Ditching AMD64 everywhere is a major feat. It's not as easy as just building a binary translator.

[Raploz]

Very interesting, though it appears Box86/64 is much faster (at least last year) https://box86.org/2022/03/box86-box6...x-vs-rosetta2/

[monkeynut]

I'm only interested in a project that's plug & play. Copy some commands into the Linux distro of your choice, have an x86/x64-ARM64 translation layer with WINE + Steam ready to go. It'd massively expand the user base.

[qarium]

They are progressing so fast. It's almost like a commercial project/product. Alyssa was employed by Valve right? Does it mean Valve has plans to run Steam on arm64 hardware in the near future?

i would say after the steam deck Valve could do a gaming smartphone. not a google andorid gaming smartphone
with real linux on it running proton and the x86 windows games on it.

[ruff]

I have a RK3588 powered SBC (well two actually) coming in a couple of months, can't wait to try fex-emu out.... but what should I use it for really? Doubt gaming on it will be any fun.

Considering Lukas was able to run Fallout New Vegas on ARM64 in emulation - i think some games might well be playable.