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Release notes for Gavare's eXperimental Emulator (GXemul), 0.4.2 |
Release notes for Gavare's eXperimental Emulator (GXemul), 0.4.3 |
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================================================================ |
================================================================ |
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Copyright (C) 2003-2006 Anders Gavare. |
Copyright (C) 2003-2006 Anders Gavare. |
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systems are probably NetBSD/pmax, NetBSD/cats, and OpenBSD/cats. |
systems are probably NetBSD/pmax, NetBSD/cats, and OpenBSD/cats. |
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Changes between release 0.4.1 and 0.4.2 include, among other things: |
Changes between release 0.4.2 and 0.4.3 include, among other things: |
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o) The NetWinder emulation mode now works well enough to let |
o) SuperH (SH4) emulation is now stable enough to let a NetBSD/dreamcast |
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NetBSD/netwinder run from a disk image. |
GENERIC_MD (ramdisk) kernel reach userland. |
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(NetBSD/netwinder has to be installed manually, though, because |
o) There is now a simple framework for letting emulated clocks, as seen |
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there is no installation ramdisk kernel. The GXemul documentation |
by guest operating systems, run at the same speed as the host clock. |
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has an example of how to install NetBSD/netwinder using an emulated |
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NetBSD/pmax machine.) |
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o) Algorithmics P5064 emulation works well enough to let NetBSD/algor |
So far, the DECstation, MobilePro (hpcmips), NetWinder, CATS, Malta |
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run from a disk image. (Similar to NetBSD/netwinder, it has to |
(evbmips), Cobalt, Algor, Dreamcast, and testmips machine modes |
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be installed manually, using another emulated machine.) |
use the new clock/timer framework. |
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o) PCI configuration register writes can now be handled, which allows |
o) Some changes to the way expressions are evaluated in the built-in |
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NetBSD/Malta (evbmips) 3.0.1 and NetBSD/cobalt 3.0.1 to run from |
debugger, and some changes in command behaviour: |
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PCI IDE harddisk images. (Previously, only NetBSD 2.1 worked for |
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the Malta and Cobalt emulation modes.) |
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o) Some performance increases: |
x) Expressions (including assignments) can now be arbitrarily |
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complex, using parentheses, and the following operators: |
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The virtual translation table update routine has been simplified |
+ - * / % (modulo) ^ (xor) & (and) | (or) |
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to work the same way for 32-bit and 64-bit emulation, and this |
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apparently results in a speedup for all 64-bit modes. |
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For 32-bit MIPS, some more instruction combinations have been added. |
x) Some internal emulator variables can now be read/written using |
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normal expressions. Examples of commands that did not work |
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earlier, but should work now: |
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print verbose |
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r5 = sp - arch_pagesize * 4 |
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machine[0].statistics_enabled = 1 |
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x) To force a name to be interpreted as a setting/register name, |
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a hash sign (#) is now used instead of the percentage sign (%). |
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(In the new expression evaluator, % means arithmetic modulo.) |
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x) The 'focus' command now also selects a cpu, in addition to |
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selecting machine and emul. |
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x) The 'reg' command only prints registers for one cpu now, not |
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all cpus in the currently focused machine. |
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o) The wdc (standard IDE controller) had a bug which prevented disk |
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images larger than 2 GB to work correctly. This has been fixed. |
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o) For MIPS emulation, some combinations of emulated processor + guest |
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operating system should now work better when idling (i.e. the host |
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should not run at 100% CPU): |
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x) For MIPS32/MIPS64 and RM5200, the 'wait' instruction should |
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now work more or less as expected. |
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x) For VR41xx (e.g. MobilePro) emulation, the standby instruction |
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should work like the 'wait' instruction. |
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x) For R3000 emulation, where there is no hardware wait instruction, |
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I've implemented "instruction combination" hacks for both |
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NetBSD/pmax and Debian/pmax, so that their cpu idle loops are |
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detected and treated almost as a wait instruction. |
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o) MIPS 64-bit address translation (X=1) was not fully working before; |
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TLB exception handling for xkseg and larger-than-2GB-userland should |
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now actually work. (Thanks to Juli Mallett and Carl van Schaik for |
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noticing these problems.) |
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o) The mouse cursor update routines in DECstation (LK201) emulation |
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previously used the fact that guest OSes set the _hardware_ |
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cursor position. In order to support X Windows when emulating |
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modern versions of NetBSD/pmax, which don't set the hardware |
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position anymore, a workaround has been implemented which only |
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sends relative coordinates to the guest OS. This has two drawbacks: |
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1. Ultrix emulation with dual- and tripple-head emulation will |
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most likely feel very strange. It will still work, though. |
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2. Cursor movement feels "accelerated", because the emulator |
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sends unaccelerated movements to the guest OS, which then |
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accelerates them. This can however be compensated to some |
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degree by running 'xset m 1 0' in the guest OS. |
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Having weird accelerated mouse movement is better than having no |
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mouse support at all, so this change was necessary. |
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Please read the HISTORY files for more details. |
Please read the HISTORY files for more details. |
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This product includes software developed by Ichiro FUKUHARA. |
This product includes software developed by Ichiro FUKUHARA. |
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This product includes software developed by Marcus Comstedt. |
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Also, src/include/alpha_rpb.h requires the following: |
Also, src/include/alpha_rpb.h requires the following: |
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Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 Carnegie-Mellon University. |
Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 Carnegie-Mellon University. |
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or reuse code. |
or reuse code. |
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Thanks to (in no specific order) Joachim Buss, Olivier Houchard, Juli Mallett, |
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Juan Romero Pardines, Alec Voropay, Göran Weinholt, Alexander Yurchenko, and |
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everyone else who has provided me with feedback. |
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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 |
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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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