| 1 |
Release notes for Gavare's eXperimental Emulator (GXemul), 0.4.2 |
Release notes for Gavare's eXperimental Emulator (GXemul), 0.4.4 |
| 2 |
================================================================ |
================================================================ |
| 3 |
|
|
| 4 |
Copyright (C) 2003-2006 Anders Gavare. |
Copyright (C) 2003-2007 Anders Gavare. |
| 5 |
|
|
| 6 |
|
|
| 7 |
GXemul is an experimental instruction-level machine emulator. Several |
GXemul is an experimental instruction-level machine emulator. Several |
| 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 |
|
Processors (ARM, MIPS, PowerPC, SuperH) are emulated using dynamic |
| 13 |
|
translation. Unlike some other dynamically translating emulators, GXemul |
| 14 |
|
does not need to generate native code, only a "runnable intermediate |
| 15 |
|
representation", and will thus run on any host architecture. |
| 16 |
|
|
| 17 |
The documentation lists the machines and guest operating systems that can |
The documentation lists the machines and guest operating systems that can |
| 18 |
be regarded as "working" in GXemul. The best working guest operating |
be regarded as "working" in GXemul. The best working guest operating |
| 19 |
systems are probably NetBSD/pmax, NetBSD/cats, and OpenBSD/cats. |
systems are probably NetBSD/pmax and NetBSD/cats. |
|
|
|
| 20 |
|
|
|
Changes between release 0.4.1 and 0.4.2 include, among other things: |
|
| 21 |
|
|
| 22 |
o) The NetWinder emulation mode now works well enough to let |
Changes between release 0.4.3 and 0.4.4 include, among other things: |
|
NetBSD/netwinder run from a disk image. |
|
| 23 |
|
|
| 24 |
(NetBSD/netwinder has to be installed manually, though, because |
o) The interrupt subsystem has been redesigned. This means two things: |
|
there is no installation ramdisk kernel. The GXemul documentation |
|
|
has an example of how to install NetBSD/netwinder using an emulated |
|
|
NetBSD/pmax machine.) |
|
| 25 |
|
|
| 26 |
o) Algorithmics P5064 emulation works well enough to let NetBSD/algor |
x) Internal code cleanup, which makes the whole emulator more |
| 27 |
run from a disk image. (Similar to NetBSD/netwinder, it has to |
maintainable. Instead of using magically encoded integers |
| 28 |
be installed manually, using another emulated machine.) |
for interrupts, strings are now used. These strings are in |
| 29 |
|
the form of "paths", so that devices and busses can more |
| 30 |
|
easily be connected to other busses, devices, or CPUs. |
| 31 |
|
|
| 32 |
o) PCI configuration register writes can now be handled, which allows |
x) Some machine types which happened to work in release 0.4.3, |
| 33 |
NetBSD/Malta (evbmips) 3.0.1 and NetBSD/cobalt 3.0.1 to run from |
but were not listed in the documentation as working, may |
| 34 |
PCI IDE harddisk images. (Previously, only NetBSD 2.1 worked for |
have stopped working now. As always, the documentation should |
| 35 |
the Malta and Cobalt emulation modes.) |
indicate the combinations of machine modes and guest OSes that |
| 36 |
|
are supposed to work. |
| 37 |
|
|
| 38 |
o) Some performance increases: |
o) SuperH (SH4) emulation is now somewhat more stable, enough to let a |
| 39 |
|
NetBSD/dreamcast Live CD be usable. |
| 40 |
|
|
| 41 |
The virtual translation table update routine has been simplified |
o) PowerPC "G4" emulation is now stable enough to let NetBSD/macppc |
| 42 |
to work the same way for 32-bit and 64-bit emulation, and this |
run from a disk image. (Installing actually worked before, but the |
| 43 |
apparently results in a speedup for all 64-bit modes. |
NetBSD/macppc GENERIC kernel uses AltiVec instructions which were |
| 44 |
|
not implemented correctly.) |
| 45 |
|
|
| 46 |
For 32-bit MIPS, some more instruction combinations have been added. |
o) The PICA-61 (arc) and i80321 (evbarm) emulation modes now have their |
| 47 |
|
timers fixed at 100 Hz. A hardcoded speed like this is very ugly, but |
| 48 |
|
it is at least better than before (when the timer wasn't really |
| 49 |
|
running at any specific speed at all). |
| 50 |
|
|
| 51 |
Please read the HISTORY files for more details. |
Please read the HISTORY files for more details. |
| 52 |
|
|
| 145 |
|
|
| 146 |
This product includes software developed by Ichiro FUKUHARA. |
This product includes software developed by Ichiro FUKUHARA. |
| 147 |
|
|
| 148 |
|
This product includes software developed by Marcus Comstedt. |
| 149 |
|
|
| 150 |
Also, src/include/alpha_rpb.h requires the following: |
Also, src/include/alpha_rpb.h requires the following: |
| 151 |
|
|
| 152 |
Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 Carnegie-Mellon University. |
Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 Carnegie-Mellon University. |
| 164 |
or reuse code. |
or reuse code. |
| 165 |
|
|
| 166 |
|
|
|
Thanks to (in no specific order) Joachim Buss, Olivier Houchard, Juli Mallett, |
|
|
Juan Romero Pardines, Alec Voropay, Göran Weinholt, Alexander Yurchenko, and |
|
|
everyone else who has provided me with feedback. |
|
|
|
|
| 167 |
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 |
| 168 |
or feedback in general, then mail me at anders(at)gavare.se. |
or feedback in general, then mail me at anders(at)gavare.se. |
| 169 |
|
|
Parent Directory
| 
Revision Log
| 
Patch