/[gxemul]/trunk/RELEASE
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revision 6 by dpavlin, Mon Oct 8 16:18:11 2007 UTC revision 34 by dpavlin, Mon Oct 8 16:21:17 2007 UTC
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1  Release notes for GXemul 0.3.3.1  Release notes for Gavare's eXperimental Emulator (GXemul), 0.4.4
2  ================================  ================================================================
3    
4  Copyright (C) 2003-2005  Anders Gavare.  Copyright (C) 2003-2007  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.
11  operating systems run as if they were running on a real machine.  
12    Processors (ARM, MIPS, PowerPC, SuperH) are emulated using dynamic
13  I have verified that the following "guest" operating systems can run  translation. Unlike some other dynamically translating emulators, GXemul
14  inside the emulator:  does not need to generate native code, only a "runnable intermediate
15    representation", and will thus run on any host architecture.
16      Guest operating system             Emulated machine  
17      ----------------------             ----------------  The documentation lists the machines and guest operating systems that can
18      NetBSD/pmax 2.0 (and 1.6.2)        DECstation 5000/200  be regarded as "working" in GXemul. The best working guest operating
19      OpenBSD/pmax 2.8-BETA              DECstation 5000/200  systems are probably NetBSD/pmax and NetBSD/cats.
20      Ultrix 4.2-4.5                     DECstation 5000/200  
21      Sprite demo harddisk image         DECstation 5000/200  
22      Debian GNU/Linux for DECstation    DECstation 5000/200  Changes between release 0.4.3 and 0.4.4 include, among other things:
23      Redhat Linux 7.1 for mips          DECstation 5000/200  
24      NetBSD/arc 1.6.2                   Acer PICA-61      o)  The interrupt subsystem has been redesigned. This means two things:
25      OpenBSD/arc 2.3                    Acer PICA-61  
26      NetBSD/hpcmips 2.0                 NEC MobilePro 770, 780, 800, 880            x)  Internal code cleanup, which makes the whole emulator more
27      NetBSD/cobalt 2.0                  Cobalt                maintainable. Instead of using magically encoded integers
28                  for interrupts, strings are now used. These strings are in
29  A couple of other emulation modes exist. Some of these modes are almost                the form of "paths", so that devices and busses can more
30  working well enough to run complete guest operating systems, but most are                easily be connected to other busses, devices, or CPUs.
31  just skeletons. The modes that work are listed in the documentation.  
32              x)  Some machine types which happened to work in release 0.4.3,
33  The emulator can also be used in other experiments; it does not have to                but were not listed in the documentation as working, may
34  run entire guest operating systems. It is important to remember, though,                have stopped working now. As always, the documentation should
35  that GXemul does not simulate things smaller than an instruction; this                indicate the combinations of machine modes and guest OSes that
36  means that pipe-line stalls, penalties caused by branch-prediction misses,                are supposed to work.
37  and other effects are not simulated.  
38        o)  SuperH (SH4) emulation is now somewhat more stable, enough to let a
39  Summary of changes between release 0.3.2 and 0.3.3.1:          NetBSD/dreamcast Live CD be usable.
40    
41          x)  When booting from an ISO9660 (CDROM) filesystem image, the kernel      o)  PowerPC "G4" emulation is now stable enough to let NetBSD/macppc
42              can now in some cases be read directly from the image, so there is          run from a disk image. (Installing actually worked before, but the
43              no need any longer to supply an external kernel. (It is a quick,          NetBSD/macppc GENERIC kernel uses AltiVec instructions which were
44              buggy, and very ugly hack, but it sometimes works.)          not implemented correctly.)
45    
46          x)  Mixing more than one disk image type (SCSI, IDE, PC-style floppy)      o)  The PICA-61 (arc) and i80321 (evbarm) emulation modes now have their
47              within one emulated machine is now possible. (There is however no          timers fixed at 100 Hz. A hardcoded speed like this is very ugly, but
48              stable emulation mode yet that uses this.)          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.
52    
         x)  Many minor updates and bugfixes.  
53    
54  Files included in this release are:  Files included in this release are:
55    
   BUGS                        A list of known bugs.  
56    HISTORY                     Detailed revision history / changelog.    HISTORY                     Detailed revision history / changelog.
57    LICENSE                     Copyright message / license.    LICENSE                     Copyright message / license.
58    README                      Quick start instructions, for the impatient.    README                      Quick start instructions, for the impatient.
59    RELEASE                     This file.    RELEASE                     This file.
60    TODO                        TODO notes.    TODO                        TODO notes.
61    configure, Makefile.skel    sh and make scripts for building GXemul.    configure, Makefile.skel    sh and make scripts for building GXemul.
62      demos                       Tutorial-like demos of testmachine functionality.
63    doc                         Documentation.    doc                         Documentation.
64    experiments                 Experimental code. (Usually not needed.)    experiments                 Experimental code. (Usually not needed.)
65    src                         Source code.    src                         Source code.
   tests                       Regression tests.  
66    
67  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
68    should work on most Unix-like systems.
69    
 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.)  
70    
71  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
72  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 133  them like this is in order: Line 132  them like this is in order:
132    
133      This product includes software developed by Marc Horowitz.      This product includes software developed by Marc Horowitz.
134    
135        This product includes software developed by Brini.
136    
137        This product includes software developed by Mark Brinicombe
138        for the NetBSD Project.
139    
140        This product includes software developed by TooLs GmbH.
141    
142        This product includes software developed by Manuel Bouyer.
143    
144        This product includes software developed by the Alice Group.
145    
146        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:
151    
152        Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 Carnegie-Mellon University.
153        All rights reserved.
154    
155        Author: Keith Bostic, Chris G. Demetriou
156    
157        Permission to use, copy, modify and distribute this software and
158        its documentation is hereby granted, provided that both the copyright
159        notice and this permission notice appear in all copies of the
160        software, derivative works or modified versions, and any portions
161        thereof, and that both notices appear in supporting documentation.
162    
163  See individual files for license details, if you plan to redistribute GXemul  See individual files for license details, if you plan to redistribute GXemul
164  or reuse code.  or reuse code.
165    
 Thanks to everyone who has provided me with feedback.  
166    
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.
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