Differences between the SH4 and SH3

Good afternoon;

I keep running into the problem of software that hasn't been compiled for use with the SH4 processor. Does anyone know if it is possible to "hack" SH3 based software to work in a machine with a SH4 processor. My personal machine is a Hitachi ePlate, which I love for its speed and ease of use, but it is frustrating when I look for software applications and then find that they are not written for the SH4 processor.

No it isn't, the architectures differ. For example the SH4 supports a 64-bit floating point subsystem - this is how the computer calculates long numbers in case you're not up on computer science. You need to get the source tree and recompile it.

There are a small number of programs which will uni-execute on both SH3 and SH4, but a miniscule fraction.

Bummer, however this is the answer I was expecting. Thanks for the response.

I think there may have been a thread where someone had a list of SH4 programs, or was that x86?

Good afternoon;

Actually that brings up a question I had that, hopefully, the more senior members can answer. What is the propriety for HPCfactor to store software? I've managed to acquire a few programs that aren't available anymore and, especially for the SH4 processor, are getting hard to find. In particular, I have copies of a beta Adobe Acrobat Reader for Sh4, an HP 48, or 49 (I can't remember and I am not at home right now so I can't check) series programmable calculator emulator, with converted ROM and bsquare's bUseful software package. Since aside from Hitachi eplate owners, who seem to be in a majority, and the Compaq Aero owners, who are a very vocal bunch, there aren't many SH4 platforms that I am aware of.

There's another member (mscdex) who recently opened an H/PC software site and is looking for software to add to it. As long as it's not registered copies of shareware/payware programs, AFAIK it's okay to put them on the site for public access.

Do you have the site address? I'll check it out and see if there is anything I can contribute.

YDM, the only reason that we don't have a vast downloads section is that we can't afford the excess bandwidth costs associated with it - unless we charge for access, and that isn't something we're prepared to do or the community would accept.

The SH4 Acrobat Reader can be downloaded from this site mind.

http://hpc.communitypage.net/