/[gxemul]/trunk/README
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revision 4 by dpavlin, Mon Oct 8 16:18:00 2007 UTC revision 24 by dpavlin, Mon Oct 8 16:19:56 2007 UTC
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1  GXemul 0.3.2  Gavare's eXperimental Emulator   --   GXemul 0.4.0
2  ============  ==================================================
3    
4  Copyright (C) 2003-2005  Anders Gavare.  Copyright (C) 2003-2006  Anders Gavare.
5    
6    
7  Overview  Overview  --  What is GXemul?
8  --------  -----------------------------
9    
10  GXemul is an experimental instruction-level machine emulator. It can be  GXemul is an experimental instruction-level machine emulator. Several
11  used to run binary code for (among others) MIPS-based machines. Several  emulation modes are available. In some modes, processors and surrounding
12  emulation modes are available. For some emulation modes, processors and  hardware components are emulated well enough to let unmodified operating
13  surrounding hardware components are emulated well enough to let unmodified  systems (e.g. NetBSD) run as if they were running on a real machine.
14  operating systems (eg. NetBSD) run as if they were running on a real machine.  
15    Processors (ARM, MIPS, PowerPC) are emulated using a kind of dynamic
16    translation system. Performance is somewhere between traditional
17    interpretation and recompilation into native code. However, the dynamic
18    translation system used in GXemul does not (currently) generate native
19    code, and thus does not require platform-specific back-ends. In plain
20    English, this means that the dyntrans system works on any host platform.
21    
22    Possible uses of the emulator include:
23    
24     o)  educational purposes, e.g. to learn how to write code for MIPS
25    
26     o)  hobby operating system development; the emulator can be used as a
27         complement to testing your code on real hardware
28    
29     o)  running guest operating systems in a "sandboxed" environment
30    
31     o)  compiling your source code inside a guest operating system which you
32         otherwise would not have access to (e.g. various exotic ports of
33         NetBSD), to make sure that your source code is portable to those
34         platforms
35    
36     o)  simulating (ethernet) networks of computers running various
37         operating systems, to study their interaction with each other
38    
39     o)  debugging code in general
40    
41    Use your imagination :-)
42    
43    
44    GXemul's limitations
45    --------------------
46    
47     o)  GXemul is not (in general) a cycle-accurate simulator, because it does
48         not simulate things smaller than an instruction. Pipe-line stalls,
49         instruction latency effects etc. are more or less completely ignored.
50    
51     o)  Hardware devices have been implemented in an ad-hoc and as-needed
52         manner, usually only enough to fool certain guest operating systems
53         (e.g. NetBSD) that the hardware devices exist and function well
54         enough for those guest operating systems to use them.
55    
56         A consequence of this is that a machine mode may be implemented well
57         enough to run NetBSD for that machine mode, but other guest operating
58         systems may not run at all, or behave strangely.
59    
60    
61  Quick start  Quick start
# Line 20  Quick start Line 64  Quick start
64  To compile, type './configure' and then 'make'. This should work on most  To compile, type './configure' and then 'make'. This should work on most
65  Unix-like systems. If not, then please mail me a bug report.  Unix-like systems. If not, then please mail me a bug report.
66    
67  Please read the the documentation in the doc/ sub-directory for more  You might want to experiment with various CC and CFLAGS environment
68  detailed information on how to use the emulator.  variable settings, to get optimum performance.
69    
70    If you are impatient, and want to try out running a guest operating system
71    inside GXemul, read this:  doc/guestoses.html#netbsdcatsinstall
72    
73    If you want to use GXemul for experimenting with code of your own,
74    then I suggest you compile a Hello World program according to the tips
75    listed here:  doc/experiments.html#hello
76    
77    Please read the rest of the documentation in the doc/ sub-directory for
78    more detailed information on how to use the emulator.
79    
80    
81  Feedback  Feedback

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