/[gxemul]/trunk/RELEASE
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revision 6 by dpavlin, Mon Oct 8 16:18:11 2007 UTC revision 42 by dpavlin, Mon Oct 8 16:22:32 2007 UTC
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1  Release notes for GXemul 0.3.3.1  Release notes for Gavare's eXperimental Emulator (GXemul), 0.4.6
2  ================================  ================================================================
3    
4  Copyright (C) 2003-2005  Anders Gavare.  Copyright (C) 2003-2007  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    Processors (ARM, MIPS, PowerPC, and SuperH) are emulated using dynamic
13  I have verified that the following "guest" operating systems can run  translation. Unlike some other dynamically translating emulators, GXemul
14  inside the emulator:  does not need to generate native code, only a "runnable intermediate
15    representation", and will thus run on any host architecture.
16      Guest operating system             Emulated machine  
17      ----------------------             ----------------  The documentation lists the machines and guest operating systems that can
18      NetBSD/pmax 2.0 (and 1.6.2)        DECstation 5000/200  be regarded as "working" in GXemul. The best working guest operating
19      OpenBSD/pmax 2.8-BETA              DECstation 5000/200  systems are probably NetBSD/pmax and NetBSD/cats.
20      Ultrix 4.2-4.5                     DECstation 5000/200  
21      Sprite demo harddisk image         DECstation 5000/200  
22      Debian GNU/Linux for DECstation    DECstation 5000/200  The changes between release 0.4.5.1 and 0.4.6 include, among other things:
23      Redhat Linux 7.1 for mips          DECstation 5000/200  
24      NetBSD/arc 1.6.2                   Acer PICA-61      o)  NetBSD/pmppc can now run in the emulator (with root-on-nfs), on
25      OpenBSD/arc 2.3                    Acer PICA-61          an emulated Artesyn PM/PPC board.
26      NetBSD/hpcmips 2.0                 NEC MobilePro 770, 780, 800, 880  
27      NetBSD/cobalt 2.0                  Cobalt      o)  An instruction combination has been implemented for the idle loop
28            used by NetBSD/arm (cats, netwinder, and iq80321). In plain English,
29  A couple of other emulation modes exist. Some of these modes are almost          this means that if the guest OS inside the emulator is not using
30  working well enough to run complete guest operating systems, but most are          any CPU, the emulator should not use much CPU on the host either.
31  just skeletons. The modes that work are listed in the documentation.  
32        o)  Some minor SuperH emulation speed improvements.
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,      o)  General code cleanup: Non-working (skeleton) emulation modes have
35  that GXemul does not simulate things smaller than an instruction; this          been removed, to make it easier to maintain the source code in
36  means that pipe-line stalls, penalties caused by branch-prediction misses,          the long run, and many unused/legacy constructs have been removed.
37  and other effects are not simulated.  
38    Please read the HISTORY file for more details.
 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.)  
39    
         x)  Many minor updates and bugfixes.  
40    
41  Files included in this release are:  Files included in this release are:
42    
   BUGS                        A list of known bugs.  
43    HISTORY                     Detailed revision history / changelog.    HISTORY                     Detailed revision history / changelog.
44    LICENSE                     Copyright message / license.    LICENSE                     Copyright message / license.
45    README                      Quick start instructions, for the impatient.    README                      Quick start instructions, for the impatient.
46    RELEASE                     This file.    RELEASE                     This file.
47    TODO                        TODO notes.    TODO                        TODO notes.
48    configure, Makefile.skel    sh and make scripts for building GXemul.    configure, Makefile.skel    sh and make scripts for building GXemul.
49      demos                       Tutorial-like demos of testmachine functionality.
50    doc                         Documentation.    doc                         Documentation.
51    experiments                 Experimental code. (Usually not needed.)    experiments                 Experimental code. (Usually not needed.)
52    src                         Source code.    src                         Source code.
   tests                       Regression tests.  
53    
54  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
55    should work on most Unix-like systems.
56    
 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.)  
57    
58  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
59  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 119  them like this is in order:
119    
120      This product includes software developed by Marc Horowitz.      This product includes software developed by Marc Horowitz.
121    
122        This product includes software developed by Brini.
123    
124        This product includes software developed by Mark Brinicombe
125        for the NetBSD Project.
126    
127        This product includes software developed by TooLs GmbH.
128    
129        This product includes software developed by Manuel Bouyer.
130    
131        This product includes software developed by the Alice Group.
132    
133        This product includes software developed by Ichiro FUKUHARA.
134    
135        This product includes software developed by Marcus Comstedt.
136    
137        This product includes software developed by Bill Paul.
138    
139        This product includes software developed by Nivas Madhur.
140    
141    Also, src/include/alpha_rpb.h requires the following:
142    
143        Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 Carnegie-Mellon University.
144        All rights reserved.
145    
146        Author: Keith Bostic, Chris G. Demetriou
147    
148        Permission to use, copy, modify and distribute this software and
149        its documentation is hereby granted, provided that both the copyright
150        notice and this permission notice appear in all copies of the
151        software, derivative works or modified versions, and any portions
152        thereof, and that both notices appear in supporting documentation.
153    
154  See individual files for license details, if you plan to redistribute GXemul  See individual files for license details, if you plan to redistribute GXemul
155  or reuse code.  or reuse code.
156    
 Thanks to everyone who has provided me with feedback.  
157    
158  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
159  or feedback in general, then mail me at anders(at)gavare.se.  or feedback in general, then mail me at anders(At)gavare.se.
160    

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