felix86 is a new open source Linux emulator to run x86-64 Linux programs on RISC-V processors

RISC-V fans will be interested in this one. felix86 has been announced as a new project with a first release available that enables you to run x86-64 Linux programs on RISC-V processors on Linux.

Their aim with the project is to get many games working with good performance, and some do already fully work but there's still lots of work to do. Some of the games that already work with it include Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment, Baba Is You, Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number, The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth, Don't Starve, World of Goo, Celeste, Balatro, VVVVVV and SuperTuxKart.

More about it:

felix86 emulates an x86-64 CPU running in userspace, which is to say it is not a virtual machine like VMware, rather it directly translates the instructions of an application and mostly uses the host Linux kernel to handle syscalls.

Currently, translation happens during execution time, also known as just-in-time (JIT) recompilation. The JIT recompiler in felix86 is focused on fast compilation speed and performs minimal optimizations. It utilizes extensions found on the host system such as the vector extension for SIMD operations, or the B extension for emulating bit manipulation extensions like BMI. The only mandatory extensions for felix86 are G, which every RISC-V general purpose computer should already have, and v1.0 of the standard vector extension.

See more on the GitHub and their website.

Pretty awesome. Love seeing more projects like this across different hardware.