--- trunk/RELEASE 2007/10/08 16:18:38 12 +++ trunk/RELEASE 2007/10/08 16:20:10 26 @@ -1,83 +1,73 @@ -Release notes for Gavare's eXperimental Emulator (GXemul), 0.3.5 -================================================================ +Release notes for Gavare's eXperimental Emulator (GXemul), 0.4.0.1 +================================================================== -Copyright (C) 2003-2005 Anders Gavare. +Copyright (C) 2003-2006 Anders Gavare. -GXemul is an experimental instruction-level machine emulator. It can be used to -run binary code for MIPS-based machines, regardless of host platform. Several -emulation modes are available. For some modes, processors and surrounding +GXemul is an experimental instruction-level machine emulator. Several +emulation modes are available. In some modes, processors and surrounding hardware components are emulated well enough to let unmodified operating systems (e.g. NetBSD) run as if they were running on a real machine. -(Non-MIPS emulation modes are also under development, but so far none of those -modes has reached the completeness required to run unmodified operating -systems.) - -I have verified that the following "guest" operating systems can run inside -the emulator: - - Guest operating system Emulated machine - ---------------------- ---------------- - NetBSD/pmax 2.0.2 (and 1.6.2) DECstation 5000/200 - OpenBSD/pmax 2.8-BETA DECstation 5000/200 - Ultrix 4.2-4.5 DECstation 5000/200 - Sprite demo harddisk image DECstation 5000/200 - Debian GNU/Linux for DECstation DECstation 5000/200 - Redhat Linux 7.1 for mips DECstation 5000/200 - NetBSD/arc 1.6.2 Acer PICA-61 - OpenBSD/arc 2.3 Acer PICA-61 - NetBSD/hpcmips 2.0.2 NEC MobilePro 770, 780, 800, 880 - NetBSD/cobalt 2.0.2 Cobalt - NetBSD/evbmips 2.0.2 Malta 5Kc/4Kc evaluation board - NetBSD/sgimips 2.0.2 SGI O2 ("IP32") - -Some of these guest operating systems are easier to install and run than -others. The best supported mode is the DECstation 5000/200 emulation mode, with -NetBSD/pmax as the guest operating system. - -A couple of other emulation modes exist. Some of these modes are almost working -well enough to run complete guest operating systems, but most are just -skeletons. The modes that work are listed in the documentation. - -The emulator can also be used in other experiments; it does not have to run -entire guest operating systems. (However, GXemul does not simulate things -smaller than an instruction. What this means is that pipe-line stalls, -penalties caused by branch-prediction misses or cache misses, and other -micro-architectural effects are not simulated.) - -The user-visible changes between release 0.3.4 and 0.3.5 are minor, and -can be summarized as follows: - - o) Updates to the (old) binary translation subsystem, resulting - in minor speed improvements. +The documentation lists the machines and guest operating systems that can +be regarded as "working" in GXemul. The best supported guest operating +systems are probably NetBSD/pmax, NetBSD/cats, and OpenBSD/cats. - o) 64-bit MIPS dmult/dmultu has been fixed. - o) slt* instructions for 64-bit MIPS were incorrectly implemented - in the i386 backend. This has been fixed. +The most important change between release 0.3.8 and 0.4.0.1 is: + + o) The emulation of MIPS processors has been completely rewritten; + it now uses the same portable dynamic translation system as the + ARM and PowerPC emulation modes. + + On Alpha and i386 hosts (and AMD64 hosts running in 32-bit mode), + GXemul previously used translation into native code. This release + will perform worse than 0.3.8 on those host architectures. + + On all other hosts (including AMD64 running in native 64-bit mode), + 0.4.0 is likely to be faster than 0.3.8, when emulating MIPS. + + I think that in the long term, moving towards full portability like + this is a good idea. + +(0.4.0 was a bit buggy and unstable; 0.4.0.1 is a quick-fix release.) + +There have also been many other changes, including, but not limited to: + + o) The "test machine" functionality is more well-defined than before, + and some tutorial-like demos have been added. These could be useful + e.g. in operating system construction courses. + + o) NetBSD/sgimips 3.0 works now. This is most likely due to the rewrite + of the MIPS emulation mode. Previous releases of GXemul only worked + with NetBSD/sgimips 2.1. + + o) I have begun implementing rudimentary support for GDB remote serial + protocol connections. This means that you can run e.g. the Data + Display Debugger, and connect it to a GXemul instance. + + No advanced GDB functionality is working yet, but starting and + stopping the emulated machine and single-stepping should work. + +Please read the HISTORY files for more details. -There have been many other bug fixes and updates, most of which are not -visible. Files included in this release are: - BUGS A list of known bugs. HISTORY Detailed revision history / changelog. LICENSE Copyright message / license. README Quick start instructions, for the impatient. RELEASE This file. TODO TODO notes. configure, Makefile.skel sh and make scripts for building GXemul. + demos Tutorial-like demos of testmachine functionality. doc Documentation. experiments Experimental code. (Usually not needed.) src Source code. -To build the emulator, run the ./configure script, and then run make. +To build the emulator, run the configure script, and then run make. This +should work on most Unix-like systems. -Building the emulator should work on most Unix-like systems. (One system which -is specifically known to NOT work is Ultrix/RISC inside the emulator; Ultrix -chokes on the configure script and the default cc in Ultrix doesn't work.) Regarding files in the src/include/ directory: only some of these are written by me, the rest are from other sources (such as NetBSD). The license text says @@ -143,6 +133,19 @@ This product includes software developed by Marc Horowitz. + This product includes software developed by Brini. + + This product includes software developed by Mark Brinicombe + for the NetBSD Project. + + This product includes software developed by TooLs GmbH. + + This product includes software developed by Manuel Bouyer. + + This product includes software developed by the Alice Group. + + This product includes software developed by Ichiro FUKUHARA. + Also, src/include/alpha_rpb.h requires the following: Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 Carnegie-Mellon University. @@ -156,13 +159,17 @@ software, derivative works or modified versions, and any portions thereof, and that both notices appear in supporting documentation. - See individual files for license details, if you plan to redistribute GXemul or reuse code. -Thanks to (in no specific order) Joachim Buss, Juli Mallett, Juan RP, Alec -Voropay, Göran Weinholt, Alexander Yurchenko, and everyone else who has -provided me with feedback. + +Thanks to (in no specific order) Joachim Buss, Olivier Houchard, Juli Mallett, +Juan Romero Pardines, Alec Voropay, Göran Weinholt, Alexander Yurchenko, and +everyone else who has provided me with feedback. + +Special thanks to Alec Voropay for testing this release with Linux +kernels, and on Cygwin, and also thanks to Ondrej Palkovsky for testing +with HelenOS. If you have found GXemul useful in some way, or feel like sending me comments or feedback in general, then mail me at anders(at)gavare.se.