/[gxemul]/trunk/RELEASE
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revision 6 by dpavlin, Mon Oct 8 16:18:11 2007 UTC revision 22 by dpavlin, Mon Oct 8 16:19:37 2007 UTC
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1  Release notes for GXemul 0.3.3.1  Release notes for Gavare's eXperimental Emulator (GXemul), 0.3.8
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  
     NetBSD/cobalt 2.0                  Cobalt  
   
 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.  
   
 Summary of changes between release 0.3.2 and 0.3.3.1:  
   
         x)  When booting from an ISO9660 (CDROM) filesystem image, the kernel  
             can now in some cases be read directly from the image, so there is  
             no need any longer to supply an external kernel. (It is a quick,  
             buggy, and very ugly hack, but it sometimes works.)  
   
         x)  Mixing more than one disk image type (SCSI, IDE, PC-style floppy)  
             within one emulated machine is now possible. (There is however no  
             stable emulation mode yet that uses this.)  
11    
12          x)  Many minor updates and bugfixes.  The documentation lists the machines and guest operating systems that can
13    be regarded as "working" in GXemul. The best supported guest operating
14    systems are probably NetBSD/pmax, NetBSD/cats, and OpenBSD/cats.
15    
16    The user-visible changes between release 0.3.7 and 0.3.8 include:
17    
18        o)  The IQ80321 (Xscale) machine mode is now working well enough to
19            run NetBSD/evbarm 2.1.
20    
21        o)  Faster framebuffer output in some situations.
22    
23    Source code related changes include:
24    
25        o)  I've finally begun to reimplement the MIPS emulation mode using the
26            new dyntrans system. It will be quite some time until it can run
27            anything, but things are moving in the right direction.
28    
29        o)  Some changes to the concepts of input-only, output-only, and
30            input-output consoles.
31    
32        o)  Some more clean-up of PCI bus concepts.
33    
34        o)  Machine definitions have been moved out of src/machines.c, and into
35            individual files in a new sub-directory (src/machines/).
36    
37    There have also been lots of other changes, too many and small to mention here.
38    
39  Files included in this release are:  Files included in this release are:
40    
# Line 61  Files included in this release are: Line 48  Files included in this release are:
48    doc                         Documentation.    doc                         Documentation.
49    experiments                 Experimental code. (Usually not needed.)    experiments                 Experimental code. (Usually not needed.)
50    src                         Source code.    src                         Source code.
   tests                       Regression tests.  
   
 To build the emulator, run the ./configure script, and then run make.  
51    
52  Building the emulator should work on most Unix-like systems. (One system which  To build the emulator, run the ./configure script, and then run make. This
53  is specifically known to NOT work is Ultrix/RISC inside the emulator; Ultrix  should work on most Unix-like systems.
 chokes on the configure script and the default cc in Ultrix doesn't work.)  
54    
55  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
56  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 116  them like this is in order:
116    
117      This product includes software developed by Marc Horowitz.      This product includes software developed by Marc Horowitz.
118    
119        This product includes software developed by Brini.
120    
121        This product includes software developed by Mark Brinicombe
122        for the NetBSD Project.
123    
124        This product includes software developed by TooLs GmbH.
125    
126        This product includes software developed by Manuel Bouyer.
127    
128        This product includes software developed by the Alice Group.
129    
130    Also, src/include/alpha_rpb.h requires the following:
131    
132        Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 Carnegie-Mellon University.
133        All rights reserved.
134    
135        Author: Keith Bostic, Chris G. Demetriou
136    
137        Permission to use, copy, modify and distribute this software and
138        its documentation is hereby granted, provided that both the copyright
139        notice and this permission notice appear in all copies of the
140        software, derivative works or modified versions, and any portions
141        thereof, and that both notices appear in supporting documentation.
142    
143  See individual files for license details, if you plan to redistribute GXemul  See individual files for license details, if you plan to redistribute GXemul
144  or reuse code.  or reuse code.
145    
146  Thanks to everyone who has provided me with feedback.  Thanks to (in no specific order) Joachim Buss, Olivier Houchard, Juli Mallett,
147    Juan Romero Pardines, Alec Voropay, Göran Weinholt, Alexander Yurchenko, and
148    everyone else who has provided me with feedback.
149    
150  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
151  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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