--- trunk/RELEASE 2007/10/08 16:19:01 16 +++ trunk/RELEASE 2007/10/08 16:22:11 40 @@ -1,7 +1,7 @@ -Release notes for Gavare's eXperimental Emulator (GXemul), 0.3.6.1 +Release notes for Gavare's eXperimental Emulator (GXemul), 0.4.5.1 ================================================================== -Copyright (C) 2003-2005 Anders Gavare. +Copyright (C) 2003-2007 Anders Gavare. GXemul is an experimental instruction-level machine emulator. Several @@ -9,80 +9,61 @@ hardware components are emulated well enough to let unmodified operating systems (e.g. NetBSD) run as if they were running on a real machine. -The processor architecture best emulated by GXemul is MIPS, but other -architectures are also partially emulated. +Processors (ARM, MIPS, PowerPC, and SuperH) are emulated using dynamic +translation. Unlike some other dynamically translating emulators, GXemul +does not need to generate native code, only a "runnable intermediate +representation", and will thus run on any host architecture. -I have verified that the following "guest" operating systems can run inside -the emulator: +The documentation lists the machines and guest operating systems that can +be regarded as "working" in GXemul. The best working guest operating +systems are probably NetBSD/pmax and NetBSD/cats. + + +The changes between release 0.4.4.1 and 0.4.5 include, among other things: + + o) Initial support for "disk overlays" has been implemented. This + enables e.g. simple roll-back of emulated disk contents to a + previous state. + + o) Dyntrans bug fixes; code translations on physical addresses that + were offset a multiple of 128 MB from each other could either + cause weird bugs, or translation leaks (leading to unnecessary + dyntrans cache overflows). + + o) Some cleanup: The GDB debugging stub support, some dummy machine + modes (TS7200, Walnut, PB1000, and Meshcube), and some dummy or + experimental CPUs (RCA180x and Transputer) have been removed, to + make the emulator slightly more maintainable. + +The changes between release 0.4.5 and 0.4.5.1 include, among other things: + + o) OpenBSD/landisk has now had its first release (4.1, 2007-05-01). + Landisk emulation is now stable enough to allow OpenBSD/landisk + to be installed onto a disk image, and run from it. + + o) Finally found and fixed an old bug in the address to symbol name + lookup mechanism, which caused some symbols to be missed. Debug + output with -t or -i should now show all symbols. + +Please read the HISTORY file for more details. - 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") - NetBSD/cats 2.0.2 CATS (ARM) - OpenBSD/cats 3.7 CATS (ARM) - -(Most of these are MIPS-based machines, except the CATS, which is an -ARM-based machine.) - -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 most imporant user-visible change between release 0.3.5 and 0.3.6 is: - - x) The experimental ARM emulation mode is now working well enough - to install NetBSD/cats and OpenBSD/cats onto harddisk images. - -There have also been lots of other small changes, too small to mention here. - -The 0.3.6.1 release fixes some issues related to ARM emulation: - - x) The emulator can now be compiled inside NetBSD/cats or OpenBSD/cats, - inside the emulator itself. (In 0.3.6, some bugs prevented this.) - - x) Performance increase: A non-scientific but realistic test, measuring - the real-world time it takes to do a full NetBSD/cats installation, - seems to indicate that 0.3.6.1 can be twice as fast as 0.3.6 was. 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 @@ -153,6 +134,18 @@ 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. + + This product includes software developed by Marcus Comstedt. + + This product includes software developed by Bill Paul. + Also, src/include/alpha_rpb.h requires the following: Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 Carnegie-Mellon University. @@ -169,10 +162,7 @@ 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 Romero -Pardines, Alec Voropay, Göran Weinholt, Alexander Yurchenko, and everyone -else who has provided me with feedback. 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. +or feedback in general, then mail me at anders(At)gavare.se.