--- trunk/RELEASE 2007/10/08 16:19:23 20 +++ trunk/RELEASE 2007/10/08 16:20:10 26 @@ -1,7 +1,7 @@ -Release notes for Gavare's eXperimental Emulator (GXemul), 0.3.7 -================================================================ +Release notes for Gavare's eXperimental Emulator (GXemul), 0.4.0.1 +================================================================== -Copyright (C) 2003-2005 Anders Gavare. +Copyright (C) 2003-2006 Anders Gavare. GXemul is an experimental instruction-level machine emulator. Several @@ -9,94 +9,65 @@ hardware components are emulated well enough to let unmodified operating systems (e.g. NetBSD) run as if they were running on a real machine. -MIPS processors are emulated using either a simple binary translation -layer ("recompilation"), which is used on Alpha and i386 hosts, or by -traditional interpretation (very very slow, but works on any host platform). - -ARM and PowerPC processors are emulated using a newer dynamic translation -system. Performance is somewhere between traditional interpretation and -dynamic recompilation; however, the dynamic translation system used in -GXemul does NOT require platform-specific back-end code. In plain English, -this means that the dyntrans system works on any host platform. - -I have verified that the following "guest" operating systems can run inside -the emulator. Instructions on how to install and run these can be found in -the documentation. - - Guest operating system Emulated machine - ---------------------- ---------------- - NetBSD/pmax 2.1 (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 2.1 NEC MobilePro 770, 780, 800, 880 - NetBSD/cobalt 2.1 Cobalt - NetBSD/evbmips 2.1 Malta 5Kc/4Kc evaluation board - NetBSD/sgimips 2.1 SGI O2 ("IP32") - NetBSD/cats 2.1 CATS (ARM) - OpenBSD/cats 3.8 CATS (ARM) - NetBSD/prep 2.1 PReP (PowerPC Reference Platform) - -Some of these guest operating systems are easier to install and run than -others. The best supported guest operating systems are probably NetBSD/pmax, -NetBSD/cats and OpenBSD/cats. - -The emulator can also be used in other experiments; it does not have to run -entire guest operating systems. However, as GXemul is an instruction-level -emulator, it does not simulate things smaller than an instruction. What this -means is that pipe-line stalls, penalties caused by branch-prediction misses -or cache misses, and other micro-architectural effects are not simulated. - -User-visible change between release 0.3.6.2 and 0.3.7 include: - - o) The experimental PowerPC emulation mode is now working well enough - to allow NetBSD/prep 2.1 to be installed and run inside the emulator. - It is not 100% stable, and it is not optimized for performance yet, - but hopefully enough for simple experiments. - - o) I finally took the time to implement a DEC 21143 NIC; this brings - network connectivity to NetBSD/cats. (The userland "NAT"-like - networking layer is still a bit buggy, and does not work with - everything. However, NetBSD/cats can now be installed via ftp.) - - o) CD-ROM images can now in some cases be detected as ATAPI CD-ROMs - instead of IDE harddisks. It works for at least NetBSD, OpenBSD, - and Linux on CATS, and NetBSD on hpcmips. - -Internal (code related) changes include: - - o) Cleanup of the PCI and ISA bus frameworks; in practice this means - that more code can be shared between different emulated machine - models than before, and that adding new machine types will become - easier. +The documentation lists the machines and guest operating systems that can +be regarded as "working" in GXemul. The best supported guest operating +systems are probably NetBSD/pmax, NetBSD/cats, and OpenBSD/cats. - o) Dyntrans updates; 32-bit PowerPC mostly, but also many performance - related updates for ARM. -There have also been lots of other changes, too many and small to mention here. +The most important change between release 0.3.8 and 0.4.0.1 is: + + o) The emulation of MIPS processors has been completely rewritten; + it now uses the same portable dynamic translation system as the + ARM and PowerPC emulation modes. + + On Alpha and i386 hosts (and AMD64 hosts running in 32-bit mode), + GXemul previously used translation into native code. This release + will perform worse than 0.3.8 on those host architectures. + + On all other hosts (including AMD64 running in native 64-bit mode), + 0.4.0 is likely to be faster than 0.3.8, when emulating MIPS. + + I think that in the long term, moving towards full portability like + this is a good idea. + +(0.4.0 was a bit buggy and unstable; 0.4.0.1 is a quick-fix release.) + +There have also been many other changes, including, but not limited to: + + o) The "test machine" functionality is more well-defined than before, + and some tutorial-like demos have been added. These could be useful + e.g. in operating system construction courses. + + o) NetBSD/sgimips 3.0 works now. This is most likely due to the rewrite + of the MIPS emulation mode. Previous releases of GXemul only worked + with NetBSD/sgimips 2.1. + + o) I have begun implementing rudimentary support for GDB remote serial + protocol connections. This means that you can run e.g. the Data + Display Debugger, and connect it to a GXemul instance. + + No advanced GDB functionality is working yet, but starting and + stopping the emulated machine and single-stepping should work. + +Please read the HISTORY files for more details. + Files included in this release are: - BUGS A list of known bugs. HISTORY Detailed revision history / changelog. LICENSE Copyright message / license. README Quick start instructions, for the impatient. RELEASE This file. TODO TODO notes. configure, Makefile.skel sh and make scripts for building GXemul. + demos Tutorial-like demos of testmachine functionality. doc Documentation. experiments Experimental code. (Usually not needed.) src Source code. -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 +should work on most Unix-like systems. -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.) Regarding files in the src/include/ directory: only some of these are written by me, the rest are from other sources (such as NetBSD). The license text says @@ -171,6 +142,10 @@ This product includes software developed by Manuel Bouyer. + This product includes software developed by the Alice Group. + + This product includes software developed by Ichiro FUKUHARA. + Also, src/include/alpha_rpb.h requires the following: Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 Carnegie-Mellon University. @@ -187,9 +162,14 @@ See individual files for license details, if you plan to redistribute GXemul or reuse code. -Thanks to (in no specific order) Joachim Buss, Juli Mallett, Juan Romero -Pardines, Alec Voropay, Göran Weinholt, Alexander Yurchenko, and everyone -else who has provided me with feedback. + +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. + +Special thanks to Alec Voropay for testing this release with Linux +kernels, and on Cygwin, and also thanks to Ondrej Palkovsky for testing +with HelenOS. If you have found GXemul useful in some way, or feel like sending me comments or feedback in general, then mail me at anders(at)gavare.se.