/[gxemul]/trunk/RELEASE
This is repository of my old source code which isn't updated any more. Go to git.rot13.org for current projects!
ViewVC logotype

Diff of /trunk/RELEASE

Parent Directory Parent Directory | Revision Log Revision Log | View Patch Patch

revision 8 by dpavlin, Mon Oct 8 16:18:19 2007 UTC revision 28 by dpavlin, Mon Oct 8 16:20:26 2007 UTC
# Line 1  Line 1 
1  Release notes for GXemul 0.3.3.2  Release notes for Gavare's eXperimental Emulator (GXemul), 0.4.1
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.
11  operating systems run as if they were running on a real machine.  
12    The documentation lists the machines and guest operating systems that can
13  I have verified that the following "guest" operating systems can run  be regarded as "working" in GXemul. The best working guest operating
14  inside the emulator:  systems are probably NetBSD/pmax, NetBSD/cats, and OpenBSD/cats.
15    
16      Guest operating system             Emulated machine  
17      ----------------------             ----------------  Changes between release 0.4.0.1 and 0.4.1 include, among other things:
18      NetBSD/pmax 2.0 (and 1.6.2)        DECstation 5000/200  
19      OpenBSD/pmax 2.8-BETA              DECstation 5000/200      o)  Some bugs in the dynamic translation core have been fixed, making
20      Ultrix 4.2-4.5                     DECstation 5000/200          all emulation modes (especially the MIPS mode) more stable.
21      Sprite demo harddisk image         DECstation 5000/200  
22      Debian GNU/Linux for DECstation    DECstation 5000/200      o)  In the refactoring effort between 0.4.0 and 0.4.0.1, single-stepping
23      Redhat Linux 7.1 for mips          DECstation 5000/200          (and instruction tracing) of 64-bit programs was accidentally broken.
24      NetBSD/arc 1.6.2                   Acer PICA-61          Single-stepping in 64-bit mode could result in strange exceptions.
25      OpenBSD/arc 2.3                    Acer PICA-61          This has been fixed in 0.4.1.
26      NetBSD/hpcmips 2.0                 NEC MobilePro 770, 780, 800, 880  
27      NetBSD/cobalt 2.0                  Cobalt      o)  MIPS emulation performance has been improved somewhat:
28    
29  A couple of other emulation modes exist. Some of these modes are almost          R3000: After removing some buggy code (hints for physical page
30  working well enough to run complete guest operating systems, but most are          translations), it was possible to remove the workaround for R3000
31  just skeletons. The modes that work are listed in the documentation.          caches which was needed in 0.4.0.1 to make Linux and Ultrix run.
32            This gives an overall speedup for R2000/R3000.
33  The emulator can also be used in other experiments; it does not have to  
34  run entire guest operating systems. It is important to remember, though,          For non-R3000, there have been some speedups as well. After fixing
35  that GXemul does not simulate things smaller than an instruction; this          reference count bugs for 64-bit addressing in the dyntrans system,
36  means that pipe-line stalls, penalties caused by branch-prediction misses,          workarounds/hacks in the tlbwr/tlbwi instructions and in the ASID
37  and other effects are not simulated.          change helper function could be removed.
38    
39  Summary of changes between release 0.3.2 and 0.3.3.2:      o)  A new -s command line option is now available, for dumping
40            raw runtime data/statistics on every instruction to a file.
41          x)  When booting from an ISO9660 (CDROM) filesystem image, the kernel  
42              can now in some cases be read directly from the image, so there is          Currently, the following kinds of data can be dumped:
43              no need any longer to supply an external kernel. (It is a quick,  
44              buggy, and very ugly hack, but it sometimes works.)          1. the program counter (virtual address)
45            2. the physical address representation of the program counter
46          x)  Mixing more than one disk image type (SCSI, IDE, PC-style floppy)          3. the internal dyntrans instruction call pointer, useful when
47              within one emulated machine is now possible. (There is however no             developing/optimizing the emulator
48              stable emulation mode yet that uses this.)  
49            This data can then be analyzed by external tools.
50    
51            (There was a -s command line option in previous releases of
52            the emulator, but it did not work as intended, and was not
53            usable from dyntrans emulation modes.)
54    
55    Please read the HISTORY files for more details.
56    
         x)  Many minor updates and bugfixes.  
57    
58  Files included in this release are:  Files included in this release are:
59    
   BUGS                        A list of known bugs.  
60    HISTORY                     Detailed revision history / changelog.    HISTORY                     Detailed revision history / changelog.
61    LICENSE                     Copyright message / license.    LICENSE                     Copyright message / license.
62    README                      Quick start instructions, for the impatient.    README                      Quick start instructions, for the impatient.
63    RELEASE                     This file.    RELEASE                     This file.
64    TODO                        TODO notes.    TODO                        TODO notes.
65    configure, Makefile.skel    sh and make scripts for building GXemul.    configure, Makefile.skel    sh and make scripts for building GXemul.
66      demos                       Tutorial-like demos of testmachine functionality.
67    doc                         Documentation.    doc                         Documentation.
68    experiments                 Experimental code. (Usually not needed.)    experiments                 Experimental code. (Usually not needed.)
69    src                         Source code.    src                         Source code.
   tests                       Regression tests.  
70    
71  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
72    should work on most Unix-like systems.
73    
 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.)  
74    
75  Regarding files in the src/include/ directory: only some of these are written  Regarding files in the src/include/ directory: only some of these are written
76  by 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
# Line 133  them like this is in order: Line 136  them like this is in order:
136    
137      This product includes software developed by Marc Horowitz.      This product includes software developed by Marc Horowitz.
138    
139        This product includes software developed by Brini.
140    
141        This product includes software developed by Mark Brinicombe
142        for the NetBSD Project.
143    
144        This product includes software developed by TooLs GmbH.
145    
146        This product includes software developed by Manuel Bouyer.
147    
148        This product includes software developed by the Alice Group.
149    
150        This product includes software developed by Ichiro FUKUHARA.
151    
152    Also, src/include/alpha_rpb.h requires the following:
153    
154        Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 Carnegie-Mellon University.
155        All rights reserved.
156    
157        Author: Keith Bostic, Chris G. Demetriou
158    
159        Permission to use, copy, modify and distribute this software and
160        its documentation is hereby granted, provided that both the copyright
161        notice and this permission notice appear in all copies of the
162        software, derivative works or modified versions, and any portions
163        thereof, and that both notices appear in supporting documentation.
164    
165  See individual files for license details, if you plan to redistribute GXemul  See individual files for license details, if you plan to redistribute GXemul
166  or reuse code.  or reuse code.
167    
168  Thanks to everyone who has provided me with feedback.  
169    Thanks to (in no specific order) Joachim Buss, Olivier Houchard, Juli Mallett,
170    Juan Romero Pardines, Alec Voropay, Göran Weinholt, Alexander Yurchenko, and
171    everyone else who has provided me with feedback.
172    
173  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
174  or feedback in general, then mail me at anders(at)gavare.se.  or feedback in general, then mail me at anders(at)gavare.se.

Legend:
Removed from v.8  
changed lines
  Added in v.28

  ViewVC Help
Powered by ViewVC 1.1.26