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Release notes for Gavare's eXperimental Emulator (GXemul), 0.3.8 |
Release notes for Gavare's eXperimental Emulator (GXemul), 0.4.4 |
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================================================================ |
================================================================ |
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Copyright (C) 2003-2006 Anders Gavare. |
Copyright (C) 2003-2007 Anders Gavare. |
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GXemul is an experimental instruction-level machine emulator. Several |
GXemul is an experimental instruction-level machine emulator. Several |
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hardware components are emulated well enough to let unmodified operating |
hardware components are emulated well enough to let unmodified operating |
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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. |
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Processors (ARM, MIPS, PowerPC, SuperH) are emulated using dynamic |
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translation. Unlike some other dynamically translating emulators, GXemul |
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does not need to generate native code, only a "runnable intermediate |
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representation", and will thus run on any host architecture. |
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The documentation lists the machines and guest operating systems that can |
The documentation lists the machines and guest operating systems that can |
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be regarded as "working" in GXemul. The best supported guest operating |
be regarded as "working" in GXemul. The best working guest operating |
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systems are probably NetBSD/pmax, NetBSD/cats, and OpenBSD/cats. |
systems are probably NetBSD/pmax and NetBSD/cats. |
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The user-visible changes between release 0.3.7 and 0.3.8 include: |
Changes between release 0.4.3 and 0.4.4 include, among other things: |
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o) The IQ80321 (Xscale) machine mode is now working well enough to |
o) The interrupt subsystem has been redesigned. This means two things: |
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run NetBSD/evbarm 2.1. |
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o) Faster framebuffer output in some situations. |
x) Internal code cleanup, which makes the whole emulator more |
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maintainable. Instead of using magically encoded integers |
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for interrupts, strings are now used. These strings are in |
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the form of "paths", so that devices and busses can more |
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easily be connected to other busses, devices, or CPUs. |
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Source code related changes include: |
x) Some machine types which happened to work in release 0.4.3, |
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but were not listed in the documentation as working, may |
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have stopped working now. As always, the documentation should |
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indicate the combinations of machine modes and guest OSes that |
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are supposed to work. |
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o) I've finally begun to reimplement the MIPS emulation mode using the |
o) SuperH (SH4) emulation is now somewhat more stable, enough to let a |
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new dyntrans system. It will be quite some time until it can run |
NetBSD/dreamcast Live CD be usable. |
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anything, but things are moving in the right direction. |
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o) Some changes to the concepts of input-only, output-only, and |
o) PowerPC "G4" emulation is now stable enough to let NetBSD/macppc |
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input-output consoles. |
run from a disk image. (Installing actually worked before, but the |
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NetBSD/macppc GENERIC kernel uses AltiVec instructions which were |
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not implemented correctly.) |
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o) Some more clean-up of PCI bus concepts. |
o) The PICA-61 (arc) and i80321 (evbarm) emulation modes now have their |
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timers fixed at 100 Hz. A hardcoded speed like this is very ugly, but |
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it is at least better than before (when the timer wasn't really |
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running at any specific speed at all). |
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o) Machine definitions have been moved out of src/machines.c, and into |
Please read the HISTORY files for more details. |
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individual files in a new sub-directory (src/machines/). |
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There have also been lots of other changes, too many and small to mention here. |
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Files included in this release are: |
Files included in this release are: |
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BUGS A list of known bugs. |
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HISTORY Detailed revision history / changelog. |
HISTORY Detailed revision history / changelog. |
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LICENSE Copyright message / license. |
LICENSE Copyright message / license. |
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README Quick start instructions, for the impatient. |
README Quick start instructions, for the impatient. |
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RELEASE This file. |
RELEASE This file. |
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TODO TODO notes. |
TODO TODO notes. |
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configure, Makefile.skel sh and make scripts for building GXemul. |
configure, Makefile.skel sh and make scripts for building GXemul. |
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demos Tutorial-like demos of testmachine functionality. |
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doc Documentation. |
doc Documentation. |
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experiments Experimental code. (Usually not needed.) |
experiments Experimental code. (Usually not needed.) |
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src Source code. |
src Source code. |
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To build the emulator, run the ./configure script, and then run make. This |
To build the emulator, run the configure script, and then run make. This |
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should work on most Unix-like systems. |
should work on most Unix-like systems. |
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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 |
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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 |
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that "All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software" |
that "All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software" |
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This product includes software developed by the Alice Group. |
This product includes software developed by the Alice Group. |
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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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See individual files for license details, if you plan to redistribute GXemul |
See individual files for license details, if you plan to redistribute GXemul |
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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. |