/[gxemul]/trunk/RELEASE
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revision 2 by dpavlin, Mon Oct 8 16:17:48 2007 UTC revision 26 by dpavlin, Mon Oct 8 16:20:10 2007 UTC
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1  Release notes for GXemul 0.3.1  Release notes for Gavare's eXperimental Emulator (GXemul), 0.4.0.1
2  ==============================  ==================================================================
3    
4  Copyright (C) 2003-2005  Anders Gavare.  Copyright (C) 2003-2006  Anders Gavare.
5    
6    
7  GXemul is an experimental instruction-level machine emulator. It can be  GXemul is an experimental instruction-level machine emulator. Several
8  used to run binary code for (among others) MIPS-based machines. Several  emulation modes are available. In some modes, processors and surrounding
9  emulation modes are available. For some emulation modes, processors and  hardware components are emulated well enough to let unmodified operating
10  surrounding hardware components are emulated well enough to let unmodified  systems (e.g. NetBSD) run as if they were running on a real machine.
 operating systems run as if they were running on a real machine.  
   
 I have verified that the following "guest" operating systems can run  
 inside the emulator:  
   
     Guest operating system             Emulated machine  
     ----------------------             ----------------  
     NetBSD/pmax 2.0 (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                 NEC MobilePro 770, 780, 800, 880  
   
 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. It is important to remember, though,  
 that GXemul does not simulate things smaller than an instruction; this  
 means that pipe-line stalls, penalties caused by branch-prediction misses,  
 and other effects are not simulated.  
   
 The two most visible changes from version 0.3 to 0.3.1 are:  
   
         x)  Name change (from mips64emul to GXemul).  
11    
12          x)  NetBSD/hpcmips can now be installed and run from a harddisk  The documentation lists the machines and guest operating systems that can
13              image on an emulated NEC MobilePro 770, 780, 800, or 880.  be regarded as "working" in GXemul. The best supported guest operating
14    systems are probably NetBSD/pmax, NetBSD/cats, and OpenBSD/cats.
15    
 There have also been many other updates and bugfixes, as usual.  
16    
17  This release has a number of known bugs, listed in the BUGS file, but feel  The most important change between release 0.3.8 and 0.4.0.1 is:
18  free to drop me an email regarding other bugs.  
19        o)  The emulation of MIPS processors has been completely rewritten;
20            it now uses the same portable dynamic translation system as the
21            ARM and PowerPC emulation modes.
22    
23            On Alpha and i386 hosts (and AMD64 hosts running in 32-bit mode),
24            GXemul previously used translation into native code. This release
25            will perform worse than 0.3.8 on those host architectures.
26    
27            On all other hosts (including AMD64 running in native 64-bit mode),
28            0.4.0 is likely to be faster than 0.3.8, when emulating MIPS.
29    
30            I think that in the long term, moving towards full portability like
31            this is a good idea.
32    
33    (0.4.0 was a bit buggy and unstable; 0.4.0.1 is a quick-fix release.)
34    
35    There have also been many other changes, including, but not limited to:
36    
37        o)  The "test machine" functionality is more well-defined than before,
38            and some tutorial-like demos have been added. These could be useful
39            e.g. in operating system construction courses.
40    
41        o)  NetBSD/sgimips 3.0 works now. This is most likely due to the rewrite
42            of the MIPS emulation mode. Previous releases of GXemul only worked
43            with NetBSD/sgimips 2.1.
44    
45        o)  I have begun implementing rudimentary support for GDB remote serial
46            protocol connections. This means that you can run e.g. the Data
47            Display Debugger, and connect it to a GXemul instance.
48    
49            No advanced GDB functionality is working yet, but starting and
50            stopping the emulated machine and single-stepping should work.
51    
52    Please read the HISTORY files for more details.
53    
54    
55  Files included in this release are:  Files included in this release are:
56    
   BUGS                        A list of known bugs.  
57    HISTORY                     Detailed revision history / changelog.    HISTORY                     Detailed revision history / changelog.
58    LICENSE                     Copyright message / license.    LICENSE                     Copyright message / license.
59    README                      Quick start instructions, for the impatient.    README                      Quick start instructions, for the impatient.
60    RELEASE                     This file.    RELEASE                     This file.
61    TODO                        TODO notes.    TODO                        TODO notes.
62    configure, Makefile.skel    sh and make scripts for building GXemul    configure, Makefile.skel    sh and make scripts for building GXemul.
63      demos                       Tutorial-like demos of testmachine functionality.
64    doc                         Documentation.    doc                         Documentation.
65    experiments                 Experimental code. (Usually not needed.)    experiments                 Experimental code. (Usually not needed.)
66    src, devices, and include   Source code.    src                         Source code.
   tests                       Regression tests.  
67    
68  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
69    should work on most Unix-like systems.
70    
 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.)  
71    
72  Regarding files in the include/ directory:  only some of these are written by  Regarding files in the src/include/ directory: only some of these are written
73  me, the rest are from other sources (such as NetBSD). The license text says  by me, the rest are from other sources (such as NetBSD). The license text says
74  that "All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software"  that "All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software"
75  must display acknowledgements. Even though I do NOT feel I mention features or  must display acknowledgements. Even though I do NOT feel I mention features or
76  use of the header files (the "software") in any advertising materials, I am  use of the header files (the "software") in any advertising materials, I am
# Line 131  them like this is in order: Line 133  them like this is in order:
133    
134      This product includes software developed by Marc Horowitz.      This product includes software developed by Marc Horowitz.
135    
136        This product includes software developed by Brini.
137    
138        This product includes software developed by Mark Brinicombe
139        for the NetBSD Project.
140    
141        This product includes software developed by TooLs GmbH.
142    
143        This product includes software developed by Manuel Bouyer.
144    
145        This product includes software developed by the Alice Group.
146    
147        This product includes software developed by Ichiro FUKUHARA.
148    
149    Also, src/include/alpha_rpb.h requires the following:
150    
151        Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 Carnegie-Mellon University.
152        All rights reserved.
153    
154        Author: Keith Bostic, Chris G. Demetriou
155    
156        Permission to use, copy, modify and distribute this software and
157        its documentation is hereby granted, provided that both the copyright
158        notice and this permission notice appear in all copies of the
159        software, derivative works or modified versions, and any portions
160        thereof, and that both notices appear in supporting documentation.
161    
162  See individual files for license details, if you plan to redistribute GXemul  See individual files for license details, if you plan to redistribute GXemul
163  or reuse code.  or reuse code.
164    
165  Thanks to everyone who has provided me with feedback.  
166    Thanks to (in no specific order) Joachim Buss, Olivier Houchard, Juli Mallett,
167    Juan Romero Pardines, Alec Voropay, Göran Weinholt, Alexander Yurchenko, and
168    everyone else who has provided me with feedback.
169    
170    Special thanks to Alec Voropay for testing this release with Linux
171    kernels, and on Cygwin, and also thanks to Ondrej Palkovsky for testing
172    with HelenOS.
173    
174  If you have found GXemul useful in some way, or feel like sending me comments  If you have found GXemul useful in some way, or feel like sending me comments
175  or feedback in general, then mail me at anders(at)gavare.se.  or feedback in general, then mail me at anders(at)gavare.se.

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