/[gxemul]/trunk/README
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Revision 44 - (show annotations)
Mon Oct 8 16:22:56 2007 UTC (16 years, 5 months ago) by dpavlin
File size: 3594 byte(s)
++ trunk/HISTORY	(local)
$Id: HISTORY,v 1.1632 2007/09/11 21:46:35 debug Exp $
20070616	Implementing the MIPS32/64 revision 2 "ror" instruction.
20070617	Adding a struct for each physpage which keeps track of which
		ranges within that page (base offset, length) that are
		continuously translatable. When running with native code
		generation enabled (-b), a range is added after each read-
		ahead loop.
		Experimenting with using the physical program counter sample
		data (implemented 20070608) together with the "translatable
		range" information, to figure out which physical address ranges
		would be worth translating to native code (if the number of
		samples falling within a range is above a certain threshold).
20070618	Adding automagic building of .index comment files for
		src/file/, src/promemul/, src src/useremul/ as well.
		Adding a "has been translated" bit to the ranges, so that only
		not-yet-translated ranges will be sampled.
20070619	Moving src/cpu.c and src/memory_rw.c into src/cpus/,
		src/device.c into src/devices/, and src/machine.c into
		src/machines/.
		Creating a skeleton cc/ld native backend module; beginning on
		the function which will detect cc command line, etc.
20070620	Continuing on the native code generation infrastructure.
20070621	Moving src/x11.c and src/console.c into a new src/console/
		subdir (for everything that is console or framebuffer related).
		Moving src/symbol*.c into a new src/symbol/, which should
		contain anything that is symbol handling related.
20070624	Making the program counter sampling threshold a "settings
		variable" (sampling_threshold), i.e. it can now be changed
		during runtime.
		Switching the RELEASE notes format from plain text to HTML.
		If the TMPDIR environment variable is set, it is used instead
		of "/tmp" for temporary files.
		Continuing on the cc/ld backend: simple .c code is generated,
		the compiler and linker are called, etc.
		Adding detection of host architecture to the configure script
		(again), and adding icache invalidation support (only
		implemented for Alpha hosts so far).
20070625	Simplifying the program counter sampling mechanism.
20070626	Removing the cc/ld native code generation stuff, program
		counter sampling, etc; it would not have worked well in the
		general case.
20070627	Removing everything related to native code generation.
20070629	Removing the (practically unusable) support for multiple
		emulations. (The single emulation allowed now still supports
		multiple simultaneous machines, as before.)
		Beginning on PCCTWO and M88K interrupts.
20070723	Adding a dummy skeleton for emulation of M32R processors.
20070901	Fixing a warning found by "gcc version 4.3.0 20070817
		(experimental)" on amd64.
20070905	Removing some more traces of the old "multiple emulations"
		code.
		Also looking in /usr/local/include and /usr/local/lib for
		X11 libs, when running configure.
20070909	Minor updates to the guest OS install instructions, in
		preparation for the NetBSD 4.0 release.
20070918	More testing of NetBSD 4.0 RC1.

1
2
3 --------------------------------------------------------
4 Gavare's eXperimental Emulator -- GXemul 0.4.6.1
5 --------------------------------------------------------
6
7
8 Copyright (C) 2003-2007 Anders Gavare
9
10
11
12 Overview -- What is GXemul?
13 -----------------------------
14
15 GXemul is a framework for full-system computer architecture emulation.
16 Several processor architectures and machine types have been implemented.
17 It is working well enough to allow unmodified "guest" operating systems to
18 run inside the emulator, as if they were running on real hardware.
19
20 The emulator emulates (networks of) real machines. The machines may
21 consist of ARM, MIPS, PowerPC, and SuperH processors, and various
22 surrounding hardware components such as framebuffers, busses, interrupt
23 controllers, ethernet controllers, disk controllers, and serial port
24 controllers.
25
26 GXemul, including the dynamic translation system, is implemented in
27 portable C, which means that the emulator will run on practically any host
28 architecture.
29
30 The documentation lists the machines and guest operating systems that can
31 be regarded as "working" in GXemul. The best working guest operating
32 systems are probably NetBSD/pmax and NetBSD/cats.
33
34 Possible uses of GXemul include:
35
36 o) running guest operating systems in a "sandboxed" environment
37
38 o) compiling your source code inside a guest operating system which you
39 otherwise would not have access to (e.g. various exotic ports of
40 NetBSD), to make sure that your source code is portable to those
41 platforms
42
43 o) educational purposes, e.g. to learn how to write code for MIPS
44
45 o) hobby operating system development; the emulator can be used as a
46 complement to testing your code on real hardware
47
48 o) simulating (ethernet) networks of computers running various
49 operating systems, to study their interaction with each other
50
51 o) debugging code in general
52
53 Use your imagination :-)
54
55
56
57 GXemul's limitations
58 --------------------
59
60 o) GXemul is not a cycle-accurate simulator, because it does not simulate
61 things smaller than an instruction. Pipe-line stalls, instruction latency
62 effects etc. are more or less completely ignored.
63
64 o) Hardware devices have been implemented in an ad-hoc and as-needed manner,
65 usually only enough to fool certain guest operating systems, e.g. NetBSD,
66 that the hardware devices exist and function well enough for those guest
67 operating systems to use them.
68
69 (A consequence of this is that a machine mode may be implemented well
70 enough to run NetBSD for that machine mode, but other guest operating
71 systems may not run at all, or behave strangely.)
72
73
74
75 Quick start
76 -----------
77
78 To compile, type './configure' and then 'make'. This should work on most
79 Unix-like systems. If it does not, then please mail me a bug report.
80
81 You might want to experiment with various CC and CFLAGS environment
82 variable settings, to get optimum performance.
83
84 If you are impatient, and want to try out running a guest operating system
85 inside GXemul, read this: doc/guestoses.html#netbsdpmaxinstall
86
87 If you want to use GXemul for experimenting with code of your own,
88 then I suggest you compile a Hello World program according to the tips
89 listed here: doc/experiments.html#hello
90
91 Please read the rest of the documentation in the doc/ sub-directory for
92 more detailed information on how to use the emulator.
93
94
95
96 Feedback
97 --------
98
99 If you have found GXemul useful in some way, or feel like sending me
100 comments or feedback in general, then mail me at anders(at)gavare.se.
101

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