Keep the cycles counting.
| Emulator (on Linux) | Boot to BASIC | Load game (64KB) | Avg. latency | |---------------------|---------------|------------------|---------------| | Vice (C64) | 4.2s | 0.3s | 12ms | | MAME (Apple II) | 6.1s | 0.5s | 18ms | | | 1.8s | 0.08s | 0.7ms | emu.os v1.0
Simply put, it’s a lightweight, bare-metal operating system designed specifically to run vintage software from the 8-bit and 16-bit eras—without the overhead of a modern host OS. Think of it as an emulator that is the OS. We’ve all done the dance. You find a dusty .rom file from a 1980s arcade cabinet or a floppy image of an obscure CP/M utility. To run it, you fire up your favorite modern emulator (RetroArch, MAME, etc.), which then fires up a Linux or Windows kernel, which then translates system calls, manages threads, and fights with your GPU drivers—all just to blink an LED on a virtual 6502. Keep the cycles counting
If you haven’t been following the project, you’re probably asking: “What exactly is Emu.OS?” Think of it as an emulator that is the OS