Run Sparc binaries without Sparc hardware

Question

I\'ve been curious in the past few months in trying my hand at doing some assembly for the SPARC processor (either V8 or V9). My question is this, I have no access to a SPARC ma

Answer 1

Just a note that If you're intend to run Solaris later than 2.5.1/5.5 then qemu-sparc won't help you. NetBSD and Linux should run fine though.

This is because qemu-sparc supports only very old SPARC processors. It will either cause the Solaris installer to throw an error when it realizes the architecture is too old, or fault/crash before it gets started if you try to install Solaris 8-11.

Mentioned previously but some cost details: A fully functional 64 core SPARC 2U capable of running Solaris 11 can be acquired from EBay for about $400USD if you want to go that route. A T5220 will do Solaris 11.

I don't have experience with the other emulators mentioned here but have also heard good things about Simics, though it's expensive.