/[gxemul]/trunk/RELEASE
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revision 16 by dpavlin, Mon Oct 8 16:19:01 2007 UTC revision 28 by dpavlin, Mon Oct 8 16:20:26 2007 UTC
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1  Release notes for Gavare's eXperimental Emulator (GXemul), 0.3.6.1  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. 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  The processor architecture best emulated by GXemul is MIPS, but other  The documentation lists the machines and guest operating systems that can
13  architectures are also partially emulated.  be regarded as "working" in GXemul. The best working guest operating
14    systems are probably NetBSD/pmax, NetBSD/cats, and OpenBSD/cats.
15    
 I have verified that the following "guest" operating systems can run inside  
 the emulator:  
16    
17      Guest operating system             Emulated machine  Changes between release 0.4.0.1 and 0.4.1 include, among other things:
18      ----------------------             ----------------  
19      NetBSD/pmax 2.0.2 (and 1.6.2)      DECstation 5000/200      o)  Some bugs in the dynamic translation core have been fixed, making
20      OpenBSD/pmax 2.8-BETA              DECstation 5000/200          all emulation modes (especially the MIPS mode) more stable.
21      Ultrix 4.2-4.5                     DECstation 5000/200  
22      Sprite demo harddisk image         DECstation 5000/200      o)  In the refactoring effort between 0.4.0 and 0.4.0.1, single-stepping
23      Debian GNU/Linux for DECstation    DECstation 5000/200          (and instruction tracing) of 64-bit programs was accidentally broken.
24      Redhat Linux 7.1 for mips          DECstation 5000/200          Single-stepping in 64-bit mode could result in strange exceptions.
25      NetBSD/arc 1.6.2                   Acer PICA-61          This has been fixed in 0.4.1.
26      OpenBSD/arc 2.3                    Acer PICA-61  
27      NetBSD/hpcmips 2.0.2               NEC MobilePro 770, 780, 800, 880      o)  MIPS emulation performance has been improved somewhat:
28      NetBSD/cobalt 2.0.2                Cobalt  
29      NetBSD/evbmips 2.0.2               Malta 5Kc/4Kc evaluation board          R3000: After removing some buggy code (hints for physical page
30      NetBSD/sgimips 2.0.2               SGI O2 ("IP32")          translations), it was possible to remove the workaround for R3000
31      NetBSD/cats 2.0.2                  CATS (ARM)          caches which was needed in 0.4.0.1 to make Linux and Ultrix run.
32      OpenBSD/cats 3.7                   CATS (ARM)          This gives an overall speedup for R2000/R3000.
33    
34  (Most of these are MIPS-based machines, except the CATS, which is an          For non-R3000, there have been some speedups as well. After fixing
35  ARM-based machine.)          reference count bugs for 64-bit addressing in the dyntrans system,
36            workarounds/hacks in the tlbwr/tlbwi instructions and in the ASID
37  Some of these guest operating systems are easier to install and run than          change helper function could be removed.
38  others. The best supported mode is the DECstation 5000/200 emulation mode,  
39  with NetBSD/pmax as the guest operating system.      o)  A new -s command line option is now available, for dumping
40            raw runtime data/statistics on every instruction to a file.
41  A couple of other emulation modes exist. Some of these modes are almost  
42  working well enough to run complete guest operating systems, but most are          Currently, the following kinds of data can be dumped:
43  just skeletons. The modes that work are listed in the documentation.  
44            1. the program counter (virtual address)
45  The emulator can also be used in other experiments; it does not have to run          2. the physical address representation of the program counter
46  entire guest operating systems. (However, GXemul does not simulate things          3. the internal dyntrans instruction call pointer, useful when
47  smaller than an instruction. What this means is that pipe-line stalls,             developing/optimizing the emulator
48  penalties caused by branch-prediction misses or cache misses, and other  
49  micro-architectural effects are not simulated.)          This data can then be analyzed by external tools.
50    
51  The most imporant user-visible change between release 0.3.5 and 0.3.6 is:          (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      x)  The experimental ARM emulation mode is now working well enough          usable from dyntrans emulation modes.)
54          to install NetBSD/cats and OpenBSD/cats onto harddisk images.  
55    Please read the HISTORY files for more details.
56  There have also been lots of other small changes, too small to mention here.  
   
 The 0.3.6.1 release fixes some issues related to ARM emulation:  
   
     x)  The emulator can now be compiled inside NetBSD/cats or OpenBSD/cats,  
         inside the emulator itself. (In 0.3.6, some bugs prevented this.)  
   
     x)  Performance increase:  A non-scientific but realistic test, measuring  
         the real-world time it takes to do a full NetBSD/cats installation,  
         seems to indicate that 0.3.6.1 can be twice as fast as 0.3.6 was.  
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.
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 153  them like this is in order: Line 141  them like this is in order:
141      This product includes software developed by Mark Brinicombe      This product includes software developed by Mark Brinicombe
142      for the NetBSD Project.      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:  Also, src/include/alpha_rpb.h requires the following:
153    
154      Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 Carnegie-Mellon University.      Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 Carnegie-Mellon University.
# Line 169  Also, src/include/alpha_rpb.h requires t Line 165  Also, src/include/alpha_rpb.h requires t
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 (in no specific order) Joachim Buss, Juli Mallett, Juan Romero  
169  Pardines, Alec Voropay, Göran Weinholt, Alexander Yurchenko, and everyone  Thanks to (in no specific order) Joachim Buss, Olivier Houchard, Juli Mallett,
170  else who has provided me with feedback.  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.
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