/[gxemul]/trunk/README
This is repository of my old source code which isn't updated any more. Go to git.rot13.org for current projects!
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Revision 38 - (show annotations)
Mon Oct 8 16:21:53 2007 UTC (16 years, 5 months ago) by dpavlin
File size: 3325 byte(s)
++ trunk/HISTORY	(local)
$Id: HISTORY,v 1.1515 2007/04/14 05:39:46 debug Exp $
20070324	Adding a "--debug" option to the configure script, to disable
		optimizations in unstable development builds.
		Moving out SCSI-specific stuff from diskimage.c into a new
		diskimage_scsicmd.c.
		Applying Hĺvard Eidnes' patch for SCSICDROM_READ_DISKINFO and
		SCSICDROM_READ_TRACKINFO. (Not really tested yet.)
		Implementing disk image "overlays" (to allow simple roll-back
		to previous disk state). Adding a 'V' disk flag for this, and
		updating the man page and misc.html.
20070325	Stability fix to cpu_dyntrans.c, when multiple physical pages
		share the same initial table entry. (The ppp == NULL check
		should be physpage_ofs == 0.) Bug found by analysing GXemul
		against a version patched for Godson.
		Fixing a second occurance of the same problem (also in
		cpu_dyntrans.c).
		Fixing a MAJOR physical page leak in cpu_dyntrans.c; pages
		weren't _added_ to the set of translated pages, they _replaced_
		all previous pages. It's amazing that this bug has been able
		to live for this long. (Triggered when emulating >128MB RAM.)
20070326	Removing the GDB debugging stub support; it was too hackish
		and ugly.
20070328	Moving around some native code generation skeleton code.
20070329	The -lm check in the configure script now also checks for sin()
		in addition to sqrt(). (Thanks to Nigel Horne for noticing that
		sqrt was not enough on Fedora Core 6.) (Not verified yet.)
20070330	Fixing an indexing bug in dev_sh4.c, found by using gcc version
		4.3.0 20070323.
20070331	Some more experimentation with native code generation.
20070404	Attempting to fix some more SH4 SCIF interrupt bugs; rewriting
		the SH interrupt assertion/deassertion code somewhat.
20070410	Splitting src/file.c into separate files in src/file/.
		Cleanup: Removing the dummy TS7200, Walnut, PB1000, and
		Meshcube emulation modes, and dev_epcom and dev_au1x00.
		Removing the experimental CHIP8/RCA180x code; it wasn't really
		working much lately, anyway. It was fun while it lasted.
		Also removing the experimental Transputer CPU support.
20070412	Moving the section about how the dynamic translation system
		works from intro.html to a separate translation.html file.
		Minor SH fixes; attempting to get OpenBSD/landisk to run
		without randomly bugging out, but no success yet.
20070413	SH SCI (serial bit interface) should now work together with a
		(new) RS5C313 clock device (for Landisk emulation).
20070414	Moving Redhat/MIPS down from supported to experimental, in
		guestoses.html.
		Preparing for a new release; doing some regression testing etc.

==============  RELEASE 0.4.5  ==============


1 Gavare's eXperimental Emulator -- GXemul 0.4.5
2 ==================================================
3
4 Copyright (C) 2003-2007 Anders Gavare.
5
6
7 Overview -- What is GXemul?
8 -----------------------------
9
10 GXemul is an experimental instruction-level machine emulator. Several
11 emulation modes are available. In some modes, processors and surrounding
12 hardware components are emulated well enough to let unmodified operating
13 systems (e.g. NetBSD) run as if they were running on a real machine.
14
15 Processors (ARM, MIPS, PowerPC, SuperH) are emulated using dynamic
16 translation. Unlike some other dynamically translating emulators, GXemul
17 does not need to generate native code, only a "runnable intermediate
18 representation", and will thus run on any host architecture.
19
20 The documentation lists the machines and guest operating systems that can
21 be regarded as "working" in GXemul. The best working guest operating
22 systems are probably NetBSD/pmax and NetBSD/cats.
23
24 Possible uses of the emulator include:
25
26 o) educational purposes, e.g. to learn how to write code for MIPS
27
28 o) hobby operating system development; the emulator can be used as a
29 complement to testing your code on real hardware
30
31 o) running guest operating systems in a "sandboxed" environment
32
33 o) compiling your source code inside a guest operating system which you
34 otherwise would not have access to (e.g. various exotic ports of
35 NetBSD), to make sure that your source code is portable to those
36 platforms
37
38 o) simulating (ethernet) networks of computers running various
39 operating systems, to study their interaction with each other
40
41 o) debugging code in general
42
43 Use your imagination :-)
44
45
46 GXemul's limitations
47 --------------------
48
49 o) GXemul is not (in general) a cycle-accurate simulator, because it does
50 not simulate things smaller than an instruction. Pipe-line stalls,
51 instruction latency effects etc. are more or less completely ignored.
52
53 o) Hardware devices have been implemented in an ad-hoc and as-needed
54 manner, usually only enough to fool certain guest operating systems
55 (e.g. NetBSD) that the hardware devices exist and function well
56 enough for those guest operating systems to use them.
57
58 A consequence of this is that a machine mode may be implemented well
59 enough to run NetBSD for that machine mode, but other guest operating
60 systems may not run at all, or behave strangely.
61
62
63 Quick start
64 -----------
65
66 To compile, type './configure' and then 'make'. This should work on most
67 Unix-like systems. If it does not, then please mail me a bug report.
68
69 You might want to experiment with various CC and CFLAGS environment
70 variable settings, to get optimum performance.
71
72 If you are impatient, and want to try out running a guest operating system
73 inside GXemul, read this: doc/guestoses.html#netbsdcatsinstall
74
75 If you want to use GXemul for experimenting with code of your own,
76 then I suggest you compile a Hello World program according to the tips
77 listed here: doc/experiments.html#hello
78
79 Please read the rest of the documentation in the doc/ sub-directory for
80 more detailed information on how to use the emulator.
81
82
83 Feedback
84 --------
85
86 If you have found GXemul useful in some way, or feel like sending me
87 comments or feedback in general, then mail me at anders(at)gavare.se.
88

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