/[gxemul]/trunk/RELEASE
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revision 2 by dpavlin, Mon Oct 8 16:17:48 2007 UTC revision 32 by dpavlin, Mon Oct 8 16:20:58 2007 UTC
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1  Release notes for GXemul 0.3.1  Release notes for Gavare's eXperimental Emulator (GXemul), 0.4.3
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. 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.
 operating systems run as if they were running on a real machine.  
   
 I have verified that the following "guest" operating systems can run  
 inside the emulator:  
   
     Guest operating system             Emulated machine  
     ----------------------             ----------------  
     NetBSD/pmax 2.0 (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 2.0                 NEC MobilePro 770, 780, 800, 880  
   
 A couple of other emulation modes exist. Some of these modes are almost  
 working well enough to run complete guest operating systems, but most are  
 just skeletons. The modes that work are listed in the documentation.  
   
 The emulator can also be used in other experiments; it does not have to  
 run entire guest operating systems. It is important to remember, though,  
 that GXemul does not simulate things smaller than an instruction; this  
 means that pipe-line stalls, penalties caused by branch-prediction misses,  
 and other effects are not simulated.  
   
 The two most visible changes from version 0.3 to 0.3.1 are:  
   
         x)  Name change (from mips64emul to GXemul).  
11    
12          x)  NetBSD/hpcmips can now be installed and run from a harddisk  The documentation lists the machines and guest operating systems that can
13              image on an emulated NEC MobilePro 770, 780, 800, or 880.  be regarded as "working" in GXemul. The best working guest operating
14    systems are probably NetBSD/pmax, NetBSD/cats, and OpenBSD/cats.
15    
 There have also been many other updates and bugfixes, as usual.  
16    
17  This release has a number of known bugs, listed in the BUGS file, but feel  Changes between release 0.4.2 and 0.4.3 include, among other things:
18  free to drop me an email regarding other bugs.  
19        o)  SuperH (SH4) emulation is now stable enough to let a NetBSD/dreamcast
20            GENERIC_MD (ramdisk) kernel reach userland.
21    
22        o)  There is now a simple framework for letting emulated clocks, as seen
23            by guest operating systems, run at the same speed as the host clock.
24    
25            So far, the DECstation, MobilePro (hpcmips), NetWinder, CATS, Malta
26            (evbmips), Cobalt, Algor, Dreamcast, and testmips machine modes
27            use the new clock/timer framework.
28    
29        o)  Some changes to the way expressions are evaluated in the built-in
30            debugger, and some changes in command behaviour:
31    
32              x)  Expressions (including assignments) can now be arbitrarily
33                  complex, using parentheses, and the following operators:
34    
35                      + - * /    % (modulo)  ^ (xor)  & (and)  | (or)
36    
37              x)  Some internal emulator variables can now be read/written using
38                  normal expressions. Examples of commands that did not work
39                  earlier, but should work now:
40    
41                      print verbose
42                      r5 = sp - arch_pagesize * 4
43                      machine[0].statistics_enabled = 1
44    
45              x)  To force a name to be interpreted as a setting/register name,
46                  a hash sign (#) is now used instead of the percentage sign (%).
47                  (In the new expression evaluator, % means arithmetic modulo.)
48    
49              x)  The 'focus' command now also selects a cpu, in addition to
50                  selecting machine and emul.
51    
52              x)  The 'reg' command only prints registers for one cpu now, not
53                  all cpus in the currently focused machine.
54    
55        o)  The wdc (standard IDE controller) had a bug which prevented disk
56            images larger than 2 GB to work correctly. This has been fixed.
57    
58        o)  For MIPS emulation, some combinations of emulated processor + guest
59            operating system should now work better when idling (i.e. the host
60            should not run at 100% CPU):
61    
62              x)  For MIPS32/MIPS64 and RM5200, the 'wait' instruction should
63                  now work more or less as expected.
64    
65              x)  For VR41xx (e.g. MobilePro) emulation, the standby instruction
66                  should work like the 'wait' instruction.
67    
68              x)  For R3000 emulation, where there is no hardware wait instruction,
69                  I've implemented "instruction combination" hacks for both
70                  NetBSD/pmax and Debian/pmax, so that their cpu idle loops are
71                  detected and treated almost as a wait instruction.
72    
73        o)  MIPS 64-bit address translation (X=1) was not fully working before;
74            TLB exception handling for xkseg and larger-than-2GB-userland should
75            now actually work. (Thanks to Juli Mallett and Carl van Schaik for
76            noticing these problems.)
77    
78        o)  The mouse cursor update routines in DECstation (LK201) emulation
79            previously used the fact that guest OSes set the _hardware_
80            cursor position. In order to support X Windows when emulating
81            modern versions of NetBSD/pmax, which don't set the hardware
82            position anymore, a workaround has been implemented which only
83            sends relative coordinates to the guest OS. This has two drawbacks:
84    
85            1. Ultrix emulation with dual- and tripple-head emulation will
86               most likely feel very strange. It will still work, though.
87    
88            2. Cursor movement feels "accelerated", because the emulator
89               sends unaccelerated movements to the guest OS, which then
90               accelerates them. This can however be compensated to some
91               degree by running 'xset m 1 0' in the guest OS.
92    
93            Having weird accelerated mouse movement is better than having no
94            mouse support at all, so this change was necessary.
95    
96    Please read the HISTORY files for more details.
97    
98    
99  Files included in this release are:  Files included in this release are:
100    
   BUGS                        A list of known bugs.  
101    HISTORY                     Detailed revision history / changelog.    HISTORY                     Detailed revision history / changelog.
102    LICENSE                     Copyright message / license.    LICENSE                     Copyright message / license.
103    README                      Quick start instructions, for the impatient.    README                      Quick start instructions, for the impatient.
104    RELEASE                     This file.    RELEASE                     This file.
105    TODO                        TODO notes.    TODO                        TODO notes.
106    configure, Makefile.skel    sh and make scripts for building GXemul    configure, Makefile.skel    sh and make scripts for building GXemul.
107      demos                       Tutorial-like demos of testmachine functionality.
108    doc                         Documentation.    doc                         Documentation.
109    experiments                 Experimental code. (Usually not needed.)    experiments                 Experimental code. (Usually not needed.)
110    src, devices, and include   Source code.    src                         Source code.
   tests                       Regression tests.  
111    
112  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
113    should work on most Unix-like systems.
114    
 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.)  
115    
116  Regarding files in the include/ directory:  only some of these are written by  Regarding files in the src/include/ directory: only some of these are written
117  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
118  that "All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software"  that "All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software"
119  must display acknowledgements. Even though I do NOT feel I mention features or  must display acknowledgements. Even though I do NOT feel I mention features or
120  use of the header files (the "software") in any advertising materials, I am  use of the header files (the "software") in any advertising materials, I am
# Line 131  them like this is in order: Line 177  them like this is in order:
177    
178      This product includes software developed by Marc Horowitz.      This product includes software developed by Marc Horowitz.
179    
180        This product includes software developed by Brini.
181    
182        This product includes software developed by Mark Brinicombe
183        for the NetBSD Project.
184    
185        This product includes software developed by TooLs GmbH.
186    
187        This product includes software developed by Manuel Bouyer.
188    
189        This product includes software developed by the Alice Group.
190    
191        This product includes software developed by Ichiro FUKUHARA.
192    
193        This product includes software developed by Marcus Comstedt.
194    
195    Also, src/include/alpha_rpb.h requires the following:
196    
197        Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 Carnegie-Mellon University.
198        All rights reserved.
199    
200        Author: Keith Bostic, Chris G. Demetriou
201    
202        Permission to use, copy, modify and distribute this software and
203        its documentation is hereby granted, provided that both the copyright
204        notice and this permission notice appear in all copies of the
205        software, derivative works or modified versions, and any portions
206        thereof, and that both notices appear in supporting documentation.
207    
208  See individual files for license details, if you plan to redistribute GXemul  See individual files for license details, if you plan to redistribute GXemul
209  or reuse code.  or reuse code.
210    
 Thanks to everyone who has provided me with feedback.  
211    
212  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
213  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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