/[gxemul]/trunk/RELEASE
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revision 21 by dpavlin, Mon Oct 8 16:19:23 2007 UTC revision 22 by dpavlin, Mon Oct 8 16:19:37 2007 UTC
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1  Release notes for Gavare's eXperimental Emulator (GXemul), 0.3.7  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. Several  GXemul is an experimental instruction-level machine emulator. Several
# Line 9  emulation modes are available. In some m Line 9  emulation modes are available. In some m
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  MIPS processors are emulated using either a simple binary translation  The documentation lists the machines and guest operating systems that can
13  layer ("recompilation"), which is used on Alpha and i386 hosts, or by  be regarded as "working" in GXemul. The best supported guest operating
14  traditional interpretation (very very slow, but works on any host platform).  systems are probably NetBSD/pmax, NetBSD/cats, and OpenBSD/cats.
   
 ARM and PowerPC processors are emulated using a newer dynamic translation  
 system. Performance is somewhere between traditional interpretation and  
 dynamic recompilation; however, the dynamic translation system used in  
 GXemul does NOT require platform-specific back-end code. In plain English,  
 this means that the dyntrans system works on any host platform.  
   
 I have verified that the following "guest" operating systems can run inside  
 the emulator. Instructions on how to install and run these can be found in  
 the documentation.  
   
     Guest operating system             Emulated machine  
     ----------------------             ----------------  
     NetBSD/pmax 2.1 (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 2.1                 NEC MobilePro 770, 780, 800, 880  
     NetBSD/cobalt 2.1                  Cobalt  
     NetBSD/evbmips 2.1                 Malta 5Kc/4Kc evaluation board  
     NetBSD/sgimips 2.1                 SGI O2 ("IP32")  
     NetBSD/cats 2.1                    CATS (ARM)  
     OpenBSD/cats 3.8                   CATS (ARM)  
     NetBSD/prep 2.1                    PReP (PowerPC Reference Platform)  
   
 Some of these guest operating systems are easier to install and run than  
 others. The best supported guest operating systems are probably NetBSD/pmax,  
 NetBSD/cats and OpenBSD/cats.  
   
 The emulator can also be used in other experiments; it does not have to run  
 entire guest operating systems. However, as GXemul is an instruction-level  
 emulator, it does not simulate things smaller than an instruction. What this  
 means is that pipe-line stalls, penalties caused by branch-prediction misses  
 or cache misses, and other micro-architectural effects are not simulated.  
   
 User-visible change between release 0.3.6.2 and 0.3.7 include:  
   
     o)  The experimental PowerPC emulation mode is now working well enough  
         to allow NetBSD/prep 2.1 to be installed and run inside the emulator.  
         It is not 100% stable, and it is not optimized for performance yet,  
         but hopefully enough for simple experiments.  
   
     o)  I finally took the time to implement a DEC 21143 NIC; this brings  
         network connectivity to NetBSD/cats. (The userland "NAT"-like  
         networking layer is still a bit buggy, and does not work with  
         everything. However, NetBSD/cats can now be installed via ftp.)  
   
     o)  CD-ROM images can now in some cases be detected as ATAPI CD-ROMs  
         instead of IDE harddisks. It works for at least NetBSD, OpenBSD,  
         and Linux on CATS, and NetBSD on hpcmips.  
   
 Internal (code related) changes include:  
   
     o)  Cleanup of the PCI and ISA bus frameworks; in practice this means  
         that more code can be shared between different emulated machine  
         models than before, and that adding new machine types will become  
         easier.  
15    
16      o)  Dyntrans updates; 32-bit PowerPC mostly, but also many performance  The user-visible changes between release 0.3.7 and 0.3.8 include:
17          related updates for ARM.  
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.  There have also been lots of other changes, too many and small to mention here.
38    
# Line 92  Files included in this release are: Line 49  Files included in this release are:
49    experiments                 Experimental code. (Usually not needed.)    experiments                 Experimental code. (Usually not needed.)
50    src                         Source code.    src                         Source code.
51    
52  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
53    should work on most Unix-like systems.
 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.)  
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 171  them like this is in order: Line 125  them like this is in order:
125    
126      This product includes software developed by Manuel Bouyer.      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:  Also, src/include/alpha_rpb.h requires the following:
131    
132      Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 Carnegie-Mellon University.      Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 Carnegie-Mellon University.
# Line 187  Also, src/include/alpha_rpb.h requires t Line 143  Also, src/include/alpha_rpb.h requires t
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 (in no specific order) Joachim Buss, Juli Mallett, Juan Romero  Thanks to (in no specific order) Joachim Buss, Olivier Houchard, Juli Mallett,
147  Pardines, Alec Voropay, Göran Weinholt, Alexander Yurchenko, and everyone  Juan Romero Pardines, Alec Voropay, Göran Weinholt, Alexander Yurchenko, and
148  else who has provided me with feedback.  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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