POS (Pong Consoles) CPUs and Other Chips

Emulation of common chips is a big part of emulating consoles and computers, this page covers all these well known parts

SOC's (System On A Chip)

Model	Manufacturer	MAME support	Emulators / Description
Elan	Unknown	Decent	Designed and Manufactured by an unknown Chinese or Taiwanese company, Elan is one of the older SOC still used in Chinese products, dating back to around the late 90s to early 2000s. Elan is usually used in bootleg or original plug and play games / systems.
SPG243	Sunplus	None
SPG250	Sunplus	None
SPG288	Sunplus	None
SPG289	Sunplus	None
SPG293	Sunplus	None
VT01	V.R. Technology	None	NOAC (NES-On-A-Chip) with the ability to drive an STN display directly using a modified palette.
VT02	V.R. Technology	None	NOAC (NES-On-A-Chip) with major enhancements compared to regular NES. What's new
VT09	V.R. Technology	None	NOAC (NES-On-A-Chip), a low-cost replacement for VT03.
VT168	V.R. Technology	None	A MOS6502-based SoC inspired by the NES but unlike NOACs, major differences made it no longer fully backward compatible with NES.
VT268	V.R. Technology	None	Enhanced VT168.
VT368	V.R. Technology	None

CPU's & MP's (Microprocessors)

Model	Manufacturer	Year	MAME support	Emulators / Description
80286	Intel	1982	None	The 80286 CPU was released on February 1, 1982, with a clock speed of 4 MHz, but it soon changed to 6 MHz. After that, it had a max clock speed of 25 MHz.
386DX	Intel	1985	None	The 386DX CPU was released in October of 1985 with a clock speed of 12 MHz. The max clock speed was 33 MHz. The 386DX was supposed to be introduced at 16 MHz, but they had to settle for 12 MHz for technical reasons
386SX	Intel	1988	None	The 386SX was released in 1988 and was intended for lower-cost home PCs. It has the same clock speeds as the 386DX.
4004	Intel	1971	None	The first commercially produced microprocessor.
4040	Intel	1974	None
6800	Motorola	1974	None
68008	Motorola	1979	None
68010	Motorola	1982	None	Pin-compatible with the 68000, but not 100% software compatible.
68012	Motorola	1985	None
68020	Motorola	1984	None	32-bit internal and external data and address buses, and natively 32-bit ALU.
68030	Motorola	1987	None	68020 with a memory management unit (MMU) and instruction and data caches of 256 bytes each.
68040	Motorola	1990	None	First 680x0 family member with an on-chip Floating-Point Unit (FPU).
68060	Motorola	1994	None	Last product in 680x0 family.
8008	Intel	1972	None
80186	Intel	1982	None
80188	Intel	1982	None
80286	Intel	1982	None	First x86 processor with memory management and wide protection abilities.
80376	Intel	1989	None
80386	Intel	1985	None	First 32-bit x86 processor.
80386DX	Intel	1988	None	The same as original 80386, just renamed.
80386EX	Intel	1994	None
80386SL	Intel	1990	None	Power efficient version of 80386 for laptops.
80386SX	Intel	1988	None	Cut down version of 80386 with 16-bit data bus.
8080	Intel	1974	None
8085	Intel	1977	None
8086	Intel	1978	None	The 8086 CPU was released on June 8, 1978, at 5 MHz and had a max clock speed of 10 MHz. It was also the beginning of the x86 architecture.
8086-1	Intel	1978	None	After the original launch, Intel released the 8086-1, which had a clock speed of 10MHz.
8086-2	Intel	1980	None	In May/June of 1980, the 8086-2 at 8 MHz was released.
8086-4	Intel	1978	None	The 8086-4 CPU came after the 8086-2 CPU, completely skipping 8086-3; it was clocked at 4 MHz.
8088	Intel	1979	None	The 8088 CPU was released on July 1, 1979, and had a default clock speed of 4.77 MHz and a max clock speed of 10 MHz.
AM2900	AMD	1975	None
AM29000	AMD	1975	None
COP400	National Semiconductor	1975	None
i386SL	Intel	1990	None	The i386SL was released for use in portable computers and had a clock speed of 20 MHz. Its max clock speed is 25 MHz.
i486	Intel	1989	None	First x86 chip to include more than one million transistors.
i486DX	Intel	1989	None	The original i486 without clock multiplier.
i486GX	Intel	1994	None	Embedded ultra-low-power CPU with all features of the i486SX and 16-bit external data bus.
i486SL	Intel	1992	None	Low-power version of the i486DX, for laptops.
i486SX	Intel	1991	None	i486 without FPU.
I8086	Intel	1980	None	The last 8086 CPU released was the I8086 in May/June of 1980.
Itanium 2	Intel/HP	2002	None	IA-64 instruction set simulator [1] [2], executable toolkit [3]
MC14500B	Motorola	1977	None
MC88100	Motorola	1988	None
Pentium	Intel	1993 (Original) 1995 (P6) 1997 (MMX)	NA
PIC	General Instrument \ Microchip	1975	NA
PowerPC	AIM Alliance	1993	NA
RISC	IBM	1975	NA
TMS1000	Texas Instruments	1974	None
Z80	Zilog	1976	None
Z8000	Zilog	1979	None
Z80000	Zilog	1986	None

Pong Consoles (Pong In A Chip)

Popular for a few years during the 70s, they came in many kinds of cases, controls, and under many brands but all used a POC (Pong In A Chip) which are chips that contain all and only essential components to run the game of Pong and their variations. And because of this, these chips are emulated rather than individual systems.

Model	Year	Manufacturer	Games/Modes	MAME support	Other support	Latest version	ROMs	Description
3659-1C/C2566	1975	Atari	Pong (Two Player)	None	Pong Consoles Simulation	git
3659-3	1975	Atari	Pong (Four Player)	None	None
AY-3-8500	1976	General Instruments	Pong (Four Modes) Light Gun (Two Modes)	None	WinArcadia / AmiArcadia and Pong Consoles Simulation	29.5 git
AY-3-8510	1978	General Instruments	NA	None	WinArcadia / AmiArcadia	29.5		Improved version of the AY-3-8500, games are now in colour
AY-3-8512	1978	General Instruments	NA	None	WinArcadia / AmiArcadia	29.5		Improved version of the AY-3-8510.
AY-3-8550	1976	General Instruments	NA	None	WinArcadia / AmiArcadia	29.5		Improved AY-3-8500 with horizontal player motion
AY-3-8600	1977	General Instruments	Pong (Eight Modes)	None	WinArcadia / AmiArcadia	29.5
AY-3-8601 (Square Off)	1976	General Instruments	Combat Squares Racing Squares Shooting Squares Jungle Games (Two Modes)	None				There is a possibly that this chip was never released
AY-3-8602 (Volleyball Plus)	1976	General Instruments	Volleyball Protection Hazard	None				There is a possibly that this chip was never released
AY-3-8603 (Roadrace)	1976	General Instruments	Racing (Two Modes)	None
AY-3-8604 (Barricade)	NA	General Instruments	Snakes	None				This game is made for two players
AY-3-8605	1977	General Instruments	Submarine (Three Modes)	None
AY-3-8606	1977	General Instruments	Breakout (Ten Modes)	None
AY-3-8607	1977	General Instruments	Light Gun	None
AY-3-8610	1977	General Instruments	Pong (Eight Modes) Light Gun	None				Improved version of the AY-3-8600
AY-3-8700	1976	General Instruments	Tank Battle	None
AY-3-8710	1976	General Instruments	Tank Battle	None
AY-3-8760	1976	General Instruments	Motor Cycle (Four Modes)	None
AY-3-8765	1976	General Instruments	Motor Cycle (Four Modes)	None
AY-3-8800	1976	General Instruments	Black Jack Draw Poker Acey/Ducey War	None
AY-3-8888 (Vegas)	1976	General Instruments	Black Jack Slot Machine	None
AY-3-8889	1976	General Instruments	Tic-Tac-Toe LEM (Lunar Landing Module)	None
C010073-01/C2607	1976	Atari	Pong (Ten Modes)	None
C010073-3	1976	Atari	Pong (Four Modes)	None	Pong Consoles Simulation	git
C010765	1977	Atari	Pong (Thirty-Two Modes)	None
C011500-11 / C011512-05	1977	Atari	Pinball/Breakout (Seven Modes)	None
CR861 (MUGS)	1977	Signetics	Pong Tank Helicopter	None				There is a possibly that this chip was never released
F4301	1976	Universal Research Labs	Pong (Two Modes) Racing (Two Modes)	None
K145ИК17	1980	Angstrem	Unknown	None				A Russian POC, its likely a clone of the AY-3-8500 series. a lot of the IC's made in during the Soviet Union were clones.
M-588135	1982	Motorola		None				A clone of the Mitsubishi M-588135
M58816P	1977	Mitsubishi / Nintendo		None	Pong Consoles Simulation	git		M58816P is a custom chip made by Mitsubishi Electronics for Nintendo, it was used in there Color TV-Game line of console. this console line was launched in 1977 with the release of the Color TV-Game 6, Nintendo's first console
MM-57100N	1976	National Semiconductor	Pong (Three Modes)	None				This is the NTSC version of the chip.
MM-57105N	1976	National Semiconductor	Pong (Three Modes)	None				This is the PAL version of the chip.
MM-57106N	1977	National Semiconductor	Unknown	None				This is the NTSC version of the chip. There is a possibly that this chip was never released.
MM-57186N	1978	National Semiconductor	Unknown	None				This is the PAL version of the chip. There is a possibly that this chip was never released.
MPS 7600-001	1977	Mostek	Pong (Four Modes)	None				This is the NTSC version of the chip. the games are made for two or four players.
MPS 7601-001	1977	Mostek	Pong (Four Modes)	None				This is the PAL version of the chip. the games are made for two or four players.
SN-76410N	1976	Texas Instruments	Pong (Six Modes)	None
TMS-1955	1976	Texas Instruments	Pong (Four Modes)	None
TMS-1965	1976	Texas Instruments	Pong (Six Modes)	None

Signetics 2650

The Signetics 2650 was an 8-bit microprocessor at 1.2 MHz introduced in July 1975.

Machine	Developer	Type	Year
PIPBUG- and BINBUG-based	Signetics	Computer	1977
Central Data 2650		Computer	1977
Dolphin		Computer	1977
Instructor 50	Signetics	Computer	1978
MIKIT 2650		Computer	1978
VC 4000	Interton	Console	1978
TV Games Computer	Elektor	Computer	1979
Galaxia	Zaccaria	Arcade	1979
Astro Wars	Zaccaria	Arcade	1980
PHUNSY		Computer	1980
Laser Battle	Zaccaria	Arcade	1981
Lazarian	Zaccaria	Arcade	1981
Malzak	Kitronix	Arcade	1981
Malzak II	Kitronix	Arcade	1981
Arcadia 2001	Emerson	Console	1982
Chaos 2		Computer	1983
Selbstbaucomputer (2650 Minimal Computer)	Ravensburger	Computer	1984
Type-right machine	VTech	Computer	1985

x86 CPUs

This part is about software that emulate x86 CPUs, and for some also other PC parts.

The PC platform is an open architecture system that IBM initially designed in 1980. IBM's PC 5150 is the progenitor (though in no way representative of iterative designs like the desktops and laptops you may be familiar with today).

The history of the PC is comprehensive, but a good summary is that almost every component of the 5150 was off-the-shelf. IBM hoped that if clones popped up, they could sue them for using the firmware in the BIOS, which they had copyright over as established by a lawsuit between Apple and Franklin. However, Phoenix designed a clean-room replacement firmware based solely on IBM's own public documentation. As a result, IBM never challenged clones that used it and promptly lost control over the platform. Intel would later take up the next major iteration in 1995, called ATX.

Sometime in the 90s, a speedup was found in PC emulation that could run software near-natively; this became the basis for hypervisors, which are different from conventional emulators listed here since they require the host architecture to be at the very least x86-compatible.

Name	Platform(s)	Latest version	8086*¹	80286	386*²	486*³	Pentium*⁴	Pentium II*⁵	Celeron*⁶	Pentium III*⁷	Pentium 4*⁸	Retro Achievements	FLOSS	Active	Recommended
PC / x86
86Box		Dev 4.0 PCBox fork	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	~	✗	✗	✓	✓	✓
PCem		v17 git git (macos)	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✗	✗	✗	✓	✓	✓
DOSBox forks DOSBox		2023.09.01 (DOSBox-X) 0.80.1 (DOSBox Staging) 0.9.7 (DOSBox Pure) git (DOSBox-core) 0.74-3 (DOSBox)	~	✓	✓	~	~	~	✗	~	✗	✗	✓	~	~
MartyPC	*	0.1.3	✓	✗*	✗*	✗*	✗	✗	✗	✗	✗	✗	✓	✓	~
UniPCemu		2023/04/11	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✗	✗	✗	✗	✓	✓	~
VARCem		Builds	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	~	✗	✗	✗	✗	✓	~	~
MAME		git artifacts 0.258 libretro core	✓	✓	✓	✓	~	~	~	~	~	✗	✓	✓	~*
PCjs		git	✓	✓	✓	✗	✗	✗	✗	✗	✗	✗	✓	✓	✗
QEMU		8.1.0	✗	✗	✗	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✗	✗	✓	✓	✗
Bochs		2.7	✗	✗	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✗	✓	✗	✗
Mobile / ARM
DOSBox Pure		libretro core	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✗	✓	✗	✗	✓	✓	✓
UniPCemu		2023/04/11	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✗	✗	✗	✗	✓	✓	~
Magic DOSBox		1.0.84	✗	✓	✓	✗	✗	✗	✗	✗	✗	✗	✗	✓	~
Limbo		6.0.1 WinMobile build	✗	✗	✗	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✗	✗	✓	✓	✗
DOSBox Turbo		2.2.0	✗	✓	✓	✗	✗	✗	✗	✗	✗	✗	✗	✗	✗
gDOSBox		0.7.5.5	✗	✓	✓	✗	✗	✗	✗	✗	✗	✗	✗	✗	✗
aDOSBox		0.2.5	✗	✓	✓	✗	✗	✗	✗	✗	✗	✗	✓	✗	✗
DOSBoxPPC		0.63	✗	✓	✓	✗	✗	✗	✗	✗	✗	✗	✗	✗	✗
Bochs		2.6.11 git	✗	✗	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✗	✓	✗	✗
Consoles
DOSBox Pure		UWP libretro core	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✗	✓	✗	✗	✓	✓	✓
UniPCemu		2023/04/11	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✗	✗	✗	✗	✓	✓	~
Bochs		2.3.5	✗	✗	✓	✓	✓	?	?	✗	✗	✗	✓	✗	✗

*¹8086 emulation includes the 8088 CPU. *²386 emulation includes the SX and SL. *³486 emulation includes variants. *⁴Pentium emulation includes variants *⁵Pentium II emulation includes variants. *⁶Celeron emulation includes variants. *⁷Pentium III emulation includes variants. *⁸Pentium 4 emulation includes variants.

Notes

PCem/86Box/PCBox/VARCem: These emulators provides an excellent compatibility and hardware support with MS-DOS, Windows 3.11, Windows ME/98/95 and even XP/Vista that is beyond what "DOSBox forks" can offer but unlike "DOSBox forks" these emulators usually requires modest to top-notch single thread performance of CPUs (specially for Pentium II and higher emulation). As of June 14, 2021, PCem's original developer, Sarah Walker, has stopped working on the project. It has now been taken over on December 18, 2021, by a new maintainer, Michael Manley. 86Box is a fork of PCem, while PCBox and VARCem are forks of 86Box, with PCBox being the most fully-featured of the four. One aspect commonly used to compare PCem and 86Box is the emulation performance. PCem v15 introduced a rewritten dynamic recompiler, which was primarily aimed at improving emulation performance in games; however, it also caused minor to severe performance regressions in other applications. 86Box uses the previous recompiler from PCem versions before v15, with optimizations performed by devs, as they have determined that the new one causes too many regressions to be adopted as a sensible default. There is a way for you to try out the new recompiler on 86Box, though. PCem’s emulation of some core system components, such as the Programmable Interval Timer (PIT), takes a few shortcuts to improve performance. These shortcuts are perfectly fine for games, which is what PCem targets; although, they have caused issues with the software preservation side of things. In addition to taking fewer shortcuts, 86Box also tries to follow the specifications of these components, rather than implement the minimum viable feature set, which is - once again - good enough for games, but not good enough for some other applications. Generally speaking, the more accurate a component’s emulation is made, the more host CPU horsepower it will require. In addition to taking fewer shortcuts, 86Box also tries to follow the specifications of these components, rather than implement the minimum viable feature set, which is - once again - good enough for games, but not good enough for some other applications.https://86box.net/2022/01/07/pcem-migration-guide.html
DOSBox-X/DOSBox Pure/DOSBox Staging: DOSBox is another option for emulating many older computer games specially for pretty good performance with low-end computers but compatibility, accuracy and hardware support aren't as good as PCem or 86Box. DOSBox is no longer updated but it has many "DOSBox forks" over the years. Windows 95/98/ME can be installed in "DOSBox forks" and also supports 3DFX Voodoo emulation. Even more forks are listed in the "DOSBox forks" page of DOSBox Staging's GitHub wiki or here. DOSBox-X is vastly different from other "DOSBox forks" in that it aims to be a complete emulation package that covers all pre-2000 DOS and Windows 9x based hardware scenarios. It features more flexibility by way of config options and an accompanying frontend to customize the DOS VM further, and beyond games it also supports standard software for DOS, as well as DOS-based Windows including Windows 3.x and 9x/ME with 3D acceleration via 3dfx emulation. The project also has its own wiki which contains extensive documentation on DOSBox-X, and a summary of notable added features can be seen here. While DOSBox-X currently supports emulation of IBM PC/XT/AT, Toshiba AX/J3100, IBM PCjr/Tandy, and NEC PC-9800 series architecture, the maintainer, Jonathan Campbell, does not plan to add any other MS-DOS system. This limitation is mainly done to prevent bloating of the codebase, keeping it at a manageable level for himself while also staying organized. However, the codebase does contain stubbed source files for FM Towns emulation in the event that other programmers want to add that functionality. DOSBox Pure is a new DOSBox fork specifically built for RetroArch/Libretro. According to its project description it aims for simplicity and ease of use just like DOSBox Staging. On top of that it has an advantage over other "DOSBox forks" because of libretro features (EmuVR support, Shader presets/Overlays and configs etc.), with version 0.9.5 3dfx emulation supported. DOSBox Staging is a DOSBox fork that focuses on ease of use, modern technology and best practices. 3dfx emulation work-in-progress at the moment.
UniPCemu The UniPCemu (Universal PC emulator) emulator, originally made to play games on the PSP, now built for Android, Windows, PSP, Nintendo Switch and PS Vita! Play your old classic PC games on Android! It's a cycle-accurate x86 emulator (previously called x86EMU before the rename, This isn't based on the other cpu-emulator called x86emu (lower case)). It's a 8086(IBM PC) up to Pentium II (Compaq Deskpro 386, Compaq Deskpro 386 with PS/2 mouse (adds PS/2 mouse to the Compaq Deskpro 386 chipset, optional BIOS ROM replacement (loading it instead, alternatively a i430fx Pentium or i440fx/i450gx Pentium Pro/Pentium II chipset with PS/2 mouse. A 85c496/7 chipset is also supported.) and seperate CMOS settings like the other architectures) emulator(with various, configurable hardware), with up to 80386 timings (80486SX and Pentium using 80386 timings or 1 cycle for newer/unknown timings/instructions, both having no floating point unit)). In basic CPU's, all generations in between are supported (8086/8088, 80186/80188, 80286, 80386sx/dx, 80486, Pentium, Pentium Pro and Pentium II. All without FPU emulated, other than software FPU emulation support using drivers). It can run many IBM PC XT games, and also various 286(*) up to Pentium II games. Support for ATAPI CD-ROM (using VIDE-CDD.SYS, OAKCDROM.SYS or compatible ATAPI drivers) also works. Many graphics cards and sound cards can be used (MIDI using a Soundfont renderer inside UniPCemu (recordable by UniPCemu's sound recording functionality) or passthrough(passthrough on Windows only, which is not recordable by the emulator's own recording functionality)), from PC speaker up to Sound Blaster 2.0 and from IBM Monochrome Display Adapter up to ET4000/W32 SVGA(up to 16M colors (in True Color mode) using it's SC15025 DAC)! EMS is available using the Lo-tech 2MB EMS board on the XT and various EMM emulation software(e.g. JEMM386, EMM386) on IBM AT and up. For more information about UniPCemu use this link.
MartyPC: It's an open source emulator written in rust that aims to be cycle accurate for IBM PCs. Compared to other (also great) PC emulators like PCem/86box/DOSbox forks etc, MartyPC focuses on ultra accurate CGA and DMA emulation. It requires pixel perfect and cycle accurate CGA emulation as well as emulation of CRT properties like overscan. Developer "Glorious_Cow" said; Of course my next target is the 286, I think it would be interesting to try to make a cycle-accurate 286. The biggest challenge is the microcode for 286 hasn't been decoded yet, but there is a high resolution 286 die shot I'd love to get my hands on... My hope is that the 286 is a more 'regular' chip than the 8088. The 8088 turned out to have a lot of odd, poorly documented behavior. I guess we'll find out. 386 is sort of a long-term goal. I'll get there when I get there, but it might take another year for 286 I estimate before I tackle it. Now that I've accomplished Area 5150 I don't really have a "goal target" in mind other than running DOOM :) My 386 will not be slavishly cycle-accurate, after all, there were many variations of the 386 and clones, so which one would be accurate to? Besides the fact it's hard to write a cycle-accurate CPU at 40MHz... At that point I think MartyPC will be done chasing the hardware, I have no interest in following the CPU generations up into the Pentiums - that's probably best left to 86box - and I think I will probably turn my eye just to seeing what kind of interesting debugging features I can add. Save states and rewinding, an inline assembler or scripting language would be cool. With most end-users probably best served by using 86box, I figure my best niche going forward is being a 'retro-developer's' emulator of choice, so I am motivated to add any debug features people might request.
MAME: The emulation of various CPU types seen here regarding MAME are all over the place in the changelogs and seem confusing. However, MAME has preliminary support for the families of 286, 386/i386, 486/i486, and almost the entire range of Pentium CPUs. However, the color, sound, and graphics emulation for various CPUs and PCs based on the 286/386/486 architecture is acceptable. According to ProjectMESS, many IBM PC/AT 5170 family PCs running the 286 CPU have preliminary support. MAME 0.146u3 (Jul 2012) added CPU types for Pentium MMX, Pentium Pro, Pentium II, Pentium III, and Pentium 4. - MAME compat list showing the sector for several IBM-type PC systems - most of which may work fine. - wiki.mamedev.org's search results for Pentium (e.g. 0.100u4, 0.103u4, 0.146u3, 0.148, 0.152, 0.156) - wiki.mamedev.org's list for MACHINE_NOT_WORKING (Few systems based on a Pentium CPU) - wiki.mamedev.org's list for MACHINE_IS_SKELETON drivers (Several PCs/systems based on a Pentium CPU)
Bochs: A full x86 PC emulator with a focus on accuracy, that is typically used to develop and test operating systems and other low-level software. Its lack of proper timing emulation makes it not useful for anything pre-Pentium, and it is often too slow for newer systems to be playable. It is thus not recommended to use Bochs for gaming.

External links

• IBM Personal Computer at TVTropes.
• Windows 8 build 7700 Info about the earliest Windows build to be unbootable in 86Box.
• Machine addition requests for 86Box

References