A compatibility layer is a term that refers to components that allow for non-native support of components.
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Software
In software engineering, a compatibility layer allows binaries for a foreign system to run on a host system. This translates system calls for the foreign system into native system calls for the host system. With some libraries for the foreign system, this will often be sufficient to run foreign binaries on the host system. Examples include:
- the Linux compatibility layer on the BSDs, which allows binaries built specifically for Red Hat Linux to run on BSDs[1]
- Wine, which runs some Microsoft Windows binaries on Unix-like systems using a program loader and the Windows API implemented in DLLs
- Windows XP's use of compatibility layers to attempt to better run Windows 98 and MS-DOS applications[2]
A compatibility layer avoids both the complexity and the speed penalty of full hardware emulation. Some programs may even run faster than the original, e.g. some Linux applications running on FreeBSD's Linux compatibility layer were often held by advocates to perform better than the same applications on Red Hat Linux. Even on similar systems, the details of implementing a compatibility layer can be quite intricate and troublesome; a good example is the IRIX binary compatibility layer in the MIPS architecture version of NetBSD.[3] A compatibility layer requires the host system's CPU to be (upwardly) compatible to that of the foreign system. Thus, for example, a MS Windows compatibility layer is not possible on PowerPC hardware, since MS Windows requires an x86 CPU; in that case, full emulation is needed.
Hardware
Hardware compatibility layers involve tools that allow hardware emulation. Also, the term can refer to tape adaptors for tape players. Other hardware compatibility layers involve breakout boxes, since breakout boxes can provide compatibility for certain computer buses that are otherwise incompatible with the machine.
See also
References
- ^ Linux Binary Compatibility (FreeBSD Handbook).
- ^ Charlie Russel, Microsoft MVP for Windows Server and Tablet PC (February 18, 2002). Application Compatibility in Windows XP.
- ^ Emmanuel Dreyfus, ONLamp. IRIX Binary Compatibility.
External links
- Windows XP Application Compatibility Technologies (Dave Morehouse and Todd Phillips, Microsoft Corporation, 1 June 2001)
