eli5: What does people mean when they say that a computer system runs on different architecture from another computer? Like when somebody says that an emulator can run N64 games faster theoretically but because of different architecture in practicality it cant?

Question

eli5: What does people mean when they say that a computer system runs on different architecture from another computer? Like when somebody says that an emulator can run N64 games faster theoretically but because of different architecture in practicality it cant?

In: Technology

Answer 1

If you are emulating a cpu that has similar cpu instruction set and functionality as a modern computer then at worst you just map the game instruction to a modern cpu instruction. Some of the late 90s consoles had weird chips and weird ways of communicating between them. Just means you have times where too much happens at once to do all the processes necessary to simulate the state of the chips faithfully.

Jon burton that lead sonic the hedgehog game development at one point has some awesome videos explaining some of the weird hardware they had to support in the 90s.
https://youtube.com/c/GameHut