Skype runs on Raspberry Pi with a virtual machine

Running x86 apps on a Raspberry Pi

A Moscow-based software start-up is the latest company to come up with a binary translator which allows x86 applications such as windows and Skype to run on Raspberry Pi.

The company called Eltech has developed a binary translator that runs applications for the conventional desktop and server x86 processors on ARM-based embedded CPUs without recompilation.

Existing offerings for this tend to relay on open-source software.

Eltech has developed a virtual machine it calls ExaGear Desktop which runs Intel x86 applications on the ARM-based Raspberry Pi simultaneously with common native applications.

The virtual machine implements virtual x86 Linux container on ARM and makes it possible to run Intel x86 applications directly on ARM.

“It is like QEMU but five times faster,” said Eltech.

As well as Raspberry Pi, the virtual machine will run on any ARM-based computer module with Linux such as ODROID, CubieBoard, CuBox, Utilite, Jetson TK1, Wandboard and Banana Pi.

ExaGear Desktop System Requirements

Hardware requirements:

–          ARMv6 instruction set with VFP32 for Raspberry Pi 1

–          ARMv7 instruction set with VFP32 for other ARM devices

–          for x86 applications that use MMX/SSE support of NEON is also required.

Software requirements:

–          Ubuntu 12.04, Ubuntu 14.04, Debian 7, Raspbian

–          additionally binfmt_misc kernel module is required.

Eltechs ExaGear Desktop will also run user space 32-bit Linux x86 applications. Current version does not support applications that require kernel modules. There is no 3D hardware support for x86 applications.

Also you can run 32-bit Windows applications if you install x86 Wine.

Note that if your ARM device does not have NEON, you cannot run x86 applications that use MMX/SSE on it.

 

Richard Wilson

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via Yuichun