/[gxemul]/trunk/RELEASE
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revision 12 by dpavlin, Mon Oct 8 16:18:38 2007 UTC revision 34 by dpavlin, Mon Oct 8 16:21:17 2007 UTC
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1  Release notes for Gavare's eXperimental Emulator (GXemul), 0.3.5  Release notes for Gavare's eXperimental Emulator (GXemul), 0.4.4
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 used to  GXemul is an experimental instruction-level machine emulator. Several
8  run binary code for MIPS-based machines, regardless of host platform. Several  emulation modes are available. In some modes, processors and surrounding
 emulation modes are available. For some modes, processors and surrounding  
9  hardware components are emulated well enough to let unmodified operating  hardware components are emulated well enough to let unmodified operating
10  systems (e.g. NetBSD) run as if they were running on a real machine.  systems (e.g. NetBSD) run as if they were running on a real machine.
11    
12  (Non-MIPS emulation modes are also under development, but so far none of those  Processors (ARM, MIPS, PowerPC, SuperH) are emulated using dynamic
13  modes has reached the completeness required to run unmodified operating  translation. Unlike some other dynamically translating emulators, GXemul
14  systems.)  does not need to generate native code, only a "runnable intermediate
15    representation", and will thus run on any host architecture.
16  I have verified that the following "guest" operating systems can run inside  
17  the emulator:  The documentation lists the machines and guest operating systems that can
18    be regarded as "working" in GXemul. The best working guest operating
19      Guest operating system             Emulated machine  systems are probably NetBSD/pmax and NetBSD/cats.
20      ----------------------             ----------------  
21      NetBSD/pmax 2.0.2 (and 1.6.2)      DECstation 5000/200  
22      OpenBSD/pmax 2.8-BETA              DECstation 5000/200  Changes between release 0.4.3 and 0.4.4 include, among other things:
23      Ultrix 4.2-4.5                     DECstation 5000/200  
24      Sprite demo harddisk image         DECstation 5000/200      o)  The interrupt subsystem has been redesigned. This means two things:
25      Debian GNU/Linux for DECstation    DECstation 5000/200  
26      Redhat Linux 7.1 for mips          DECstation 5000/200            x)  Internal code cleanup, which makes the whole emulator more
27      NetBSD/arc 1.6.2                   Acer PICA-61                maintainable. Instead of using magically encoded integers
28      OpenBSD/arc 2.3                    Acer PICA-61                for interrupts, strings are now used. These strings are in
29      NetBSD/hpcmips 2.0.2               NEC MobilePro 770, 780, 800, 880                the form of "paths", so that devices and busses can more
30      NetBSD/cobalt 2.0.2                Cobalt                easily be connected to other busses, devices, or CPUs.
31      NetBSD/evbmips 2.0.2               Malta 5Kc/4Kc evaluation board  
32      NetBSD/sgimips 2.0.2               SGI O2 ("IP32")            x)  Some machine types which happened to work in release 0.4.3,
33                  but were not listed in the documentation as working, may
34  Some of these guest operating systems are easier to install and run than                have stopped working now. As always, the documentation should
35  others. The best supported mode is the DECstation 5000/200 emulation mode, with                indicate the combinations of machine modes and guest OSes that
36  NetBSD/pmax as the guest operating system.                are supposed to work.
37    
38  A couple of other emulation modes exist. Some of these modes are almost working      o)  SuperH (SH4) emulation is now somewhat more stable, enough to let a
39  well enough to run complete guest operating systems, but most are just          NetBSD/dreamcast Live CD be usable.
40  skeletons. The modes that work are listed in the documentation.  
41        o)  PowerPC "G4" emulation is now stable enough to let NetBSD/macppc
42  The emulator can also be used in other experiments; it does not have to run          run from a disk image. (Installing actually worked before, but the
43  entire guest operating systems. (However, GXemul does not simulate things          NetBSD/macppc GENERIC kernel uses AltiVec instructions which were
44  smaller than an instruction. What this means is that pipe-line stalls,          not implemented correctly.)
45  penalties caused by branch-prediction misses or cache misses, and other  
46  micro-architectural effects are not simulated.)      o)  The PICA-61 (arc) and i80321 (evbarm) emulation modes now have their
47            timers fixed at 100 Hz. A hardcoded speed like this is very ugly, but
48  The user-visible changes between release 0.3.4 and 0.3.5 are minor, and          it is at least better than before (when the timer wasn't really
49  can be summarized as follows:          running at any specific speed at all).
   
         o)  Updates to the (old) binary translation subsystem, resulting  
             in minor speed improvements.  
50    
51          o)  64-bit MIPS dmult/dmultu has been fixed.  Please read the HISTORY files for more details.
52    
         o)  slt* instructions for 64-bit MIPS were incorrectly implemented  
             in the i386 backend. This has been fixed.  
   
 There have been many other bug fixes and updates, most of which are not  
 visible.  
53    
54  Files included in this release are:  Files included in this release are:
55    
   BUGS                        A list of known bugs.  
56    HISTORY                     Detailed revision history / changelog.    HISTORY                     Detailed revision history / changelog.
57    LICENSE                     Copyright message / license.    LICENSE                     Copyright message / license.
58    README                      Quick start instructions, for the impatient.    README                      Quick start instructions, for the impatient.
59    RELEASE                     This file.    RELEASE                     This file.
60    TODO                        TODO notes.    TODO                        TODO notes.
61    configure, Makefile.skel    sh and make scripts for building GXemul.    configure, Makefile.skel    sh and make scripts for building GXemul.
62      demos                       Tutorial-like demos of testmachine functionality.
63    doc                         Documentation.    doc                         Documentation.
64    experiments                 Experimental code. (Usually not needed.)    experiments                 Experimental code. (Usually not needed.)
65    src                         Source code.    src                         Source code.
66    
67  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
68    should work on most Unix-like systems.
69    
 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.)  
70    
71  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
72  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 143  them like this is in order: Line 132  them like this is in order:
132    
133      This product includes software developed by Marc Horowitz.      This product includes software developed by Marc Horowitz.
134    
135        This product includes software developed by Brini.
136    
137        This product includes software developed by Mark Brinicombe
138        for the NetBSD Project.
139    
140        This product includes software developed by TooLs GmbH.
141    
142        This product includes software developed by Manuel Bouyer.
143    
144        This product includes software developed by the Alice Group.
145    
146        This product includes software developed by Ichiro FUKUHARA.
147    
148        This product includes software developed by Marcus Comstedt.
149    
150  Also, src/include/alpha_rpb.h requires the following:  Also, src/include/alpha_rpb.h requires the following:
151    
152      Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 Carnegie-Mellon University.      Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 Carnegie-Mellon University.
# Line 156  Also, src/include/alpha_rpb.h requires t Line 160  Also, src/include/alpha_rpb.h requires t
160      software, derivative works or modified versions, and any portions      software, derivative works or modified versions, and any portions
161      thereof, and that both notices appear in supporting documentation.      thereof, and that both notices appear in supporting documentation.
162    
   
163  See individual files for license details, if you plan to redistribute GXemul  See individual files for license details, if you plan to redistribute GXemul
164  or reuse code.  or reuse code.
165    
 Thanks to (in no specific order) Joachim Buss, Juli Mallett, Juan RP, Alec  
 Voropay, Göran Weinholt, Alexander Yurchenko, and everyone else who has  
 provided me with feedback.  
166    
167  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
168  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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