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Compatibility layer

lastmod 2020-12-09created 2020-10-078 edits

A compatibility layer is a term for a component that allows support for non-native components.

Categories

Virtualization

Software

  • Wine - Runs some Microsoft Windows binaries on Unix-like systems using a program loader and the Windows API implemented as DLLs.
  • The application compatibility layer of Windows attempts to run poorly written applications or applications written for earlier versions of the platform.
  • Lina - Runs some Linux binaries on Windows, Mac OS X, and Unix-like systems with native look and feel.
  • KernelEX - Runs some Windows 2000/XP programs on Windows 98/Me.
  • Executor - Runs 68k-based "classic" Mac OS programs on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.
  • Anbox - An Android compatibility layer for Linux.
  • Columbia Cycada - Runs Apple iOS applications on Android systems.
  • Hybris - A library that translates Bionic into glibc calls.
  • Darling - A translation layer that attempts to run Mac OS X and Darwin binaries on Linux.
  • Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) - Runs Linux binaries on Windows.
  • Cygwin - A POSIX-compatible environment that runs natively on Windows.
  • 2ine - A project to run OS/2 applications on Linux

Compatibility layer in kernel:

  • FreeBSD's Linux compatibility layer - Enables binaries built specifically for Linux to run on FreeBSD the same way as the native FreeBSD API layer. FreeBSD also has some Unix-like system emulations, including NDIS, NetBSD, PECoff, SVR4, and different CPU versions of FreeBSD.
  • NetBSD - Has several Unix-like system emulations.
  • Windows Subsystem for Linux - Provides a Linux-compatible kernel interface developed by Microsoft, containing no Linux code, with Ubuntu user-mode binaries running on top of it.
  • The PEACE Project (aka COMPAT_PECOFF) - Has a Win32 compatibility layer for NetBSD. The project is now inactive.

A compatibility layer avoids both the complexity and the speed loss of full hardware emulation. Some programs may even run faster than on the original. Some Linux applications running on FreeBSD's Linux compatibility layer may perform better than the same applications on Red Hat Linux. Benchmarks are occasionally run on Wine to compare it with Windows NT-based operating systems.

Even on similar systems, the details of implementing a compatibility layer can be extremely intricate and troublesome. A good example is the IRIX binary compatibility layer in the MIPS architecture version of NetBSD.

A compatibility layer requires the host system's CPU to be (upward) compatible with that of the foreign system. For example, a Microsoft Windows compatibility layer is not possible on PowerPC hardware because Windows requires an x86 CPU. In this case full emulation is needed.

Hardware

Hardware compatibility layers include tools that allow hardware emulation. The term is also used for tape adapters in the case of tape players. Other hardware compatibility layers include breakout boxes, which provide compatibility for a particular computer bus of an otherwise incompatible computer.

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