/[gxemul]/trunk/RELEASE
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revision 4 by dpavlin, Mon Oct 8 16:18:00 2007 UTC revision 36 by dpavlin, Mon Oct 8 16:21:34 2007 UTC
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1  Release notes for GXemul 0.3.2  Release notes for Gavare's eXperimental Emulator (GXemul), 0.4.4.1
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.
 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  
     NetBSD/cobalt 2.0                  Cobalt  
   
 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.  
11    
12  The most important/visible changes from 0.3.1 to 0.3.2 are:  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          x)  NetBSD/cobalt can run from a harddisk image. (Installation  The documentation lists the machines and guest operating systems that can
18              must be done using another OS though, for example NetBSD/pmax.)  be regarded as "working" in GXemul. The best working guest operating
19    systems are probably NetBSD/pmax and NetBSD/cats.
20    
21    
22    Changes between release 0.4.3 and 0.4.4.1 include, among other things:
23    
24        o)  The interrupt subsystem has been redesigned. This means two things:
25    
26              x)  Internal code cleanup, which makes the whole emulator more
27                  maintainable. Instead of using magically encoded integers
28                  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              x)  Some machine types which happened to work in release 0.4.3,
33                  but were not listed in the documentation as working, may
34                  have stopped working now. As always, the documentation should
35                  indicate the combinations of machine modes and guest OSes that
36                  are supposed to work.
37    
38        o)  SuperH (SH4) emulation is now somewhat more stable.
39    
40              x)  GXemul 0.4.4:    A NetBSD/dreamcast Live CD works.
41              x)  GXemul 0.4.4.1:  A Linux/dreamcast Live CD also works.
42    
43        o)  PowerPC "G4" emulation is now stable enough to let NetBSD/macppc
44            run from a disk image. (Installing actually worked before, but the
45            NetBSD/macppc GENERIC kernel uses AltiVec instructions which were
46            not implemented correctly.)
47    
48        o)  The PICA-61 (arc) and i80321 (evbarm) emulation modes now have their
49            timers fixed at 100 Hz. A hardcoded speed like this is very ugly, but
50            it is at least better than before (when the timer wasn't really
51            running at any specific speed at all).
52    
53    Please read the HISTORY files for more details.
54    
         x)  Some minor fixes to make the binary translation system a bit  
             more stable.  
55    
56  Files included in this release are:  Files included in this release are:
57    
   BUGS                        A list of known bugs.  
58    HISTORY                     Detailed revision history / changelog.    HISTORY                     Detailed revision history / changelog.
59    LICENSE                     Copyright message / license.    LICENSE                     Copyright message / license.
60    README                      Quick start instructions, for the impatient.    README                      Quick start instructions, for the impatient.
61    RELEASE                     This file.    RELEASE                     This file.
62    TODO                        TODO notes.    TODO                        TODO notes.
63    configure, Makefile.skel    sh and make scripts for building GXemul.    configure, Makefile.skel    sh and make scripts for building GXemul.
64      demos                       Tutorial-like demos of testmachine functionality.
65    doc                         Documentation.    doc                         Documentation.
66    experiments                 Experimental code. (Usually not needed.)    experiments                 Experimental code. (Usually not needed.)
67    src                         Source code.    src                         Source code.
   tests                       Regression tests.  
68    
69  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
70    should work on most Unix-like systems.
71    
 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.)  
72    
73  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
74  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 128  them like this is in order: Line 134  them like this is in order:
134    
135      This product includes software developed by Marc Horowitz.      This product includes software developed by Marc Horowitz.
136    
137        This product includes software developed by Brini.
138    
139        This product includes software developed by Mark Brinicombe
140        for the NetBSD Project.
141    
142        This product includes software developed by TooLs GmbH.
143    
144        This product includes software developed by Manuel Bouyer.
145    
146        This product includes software developed by the Alice Group.
147    
148        This product includes software developed by Ichiro FUKUHARA.
149    
150        This product includes software developed by Marcus Comstedt.
151    
152    Also, src/include/alpha_rpb.h requires the following:
153    
154        Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 Carnegie-Mellon University.
155        All rights reserved.
156    
157        Author: Keith Bostic, Chris G. Demetriou
158    
159        Permission to use, copy, modify and distribute this software and
160        its documentation is hereby granted, provided that both the copyright
161        notice and this permission notice appear in all copies of the
162        software, derivative works or modified versions, and any portions
163        thereof, and that both notices appear in supporting documentation.
164    
165  See individual files for license details, if you plan to redistribute GXemul  See individual files for license details, if you plan to redistribute GXemul
166  or reuse code.  or reuse code.
167    
 Thanks to everyone who has provided me with feedback.  
168    
169  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
170  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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