/[gxemul]/trunk/doc/intro.html
This is repository of my old source code which isn't updated any more. Go to git.rot13.org for current projects!
ViewVC logotype

Diff of /trunk/doc/intro.html

Parent Directory Parent Directory | Revision Log Revision Log | View Patch Patch

revision 6 by dpavlin, Mon Oct 8 16:18:11 2007 UTC revision 24 by dpavlin, Mon Oct 8 16:19:56 2007 UTC
# Line 1  Line 1 
1  <html>  <html><head><title>Gavare's eXperimental Emulator:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Introduction</title>
2  <head><title>GXemul documentation: Introduction</title>  <meta name="robots" content="noarchive,nofollow,noindex"></head>
 </head>  
3  <body bgcolor="#f8f8f8" text="#000000" link="#4040f0" vlink="#404040" alink="#ff0000">  <body bgcolor="#f8f8f8" text="#000000" link="#4040f0" vlink="#404040" alink="#ff0000">
4  <table border=0 width=100% bgcolor="#d0d0d0"><tr>  <table border=0 width=100% bgcolor="#d0d0d0"><tr>
5  <td width=100% align=center valign=center><table border=0 width=100%><tr>  <td width=100% align=center valign=center><table border=0 width=100%><tr>
6  <td align="left" valign=center bgcolor="#d0efff"><font color="#6060e0" size="6">  <td align="left" valign=center bgcolor="#d0efff"><font color="#6060e0" size="6">
7  <b>GXemul documentation:</b></font>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;  <b>Gavare's eXperimental Emulator:</b></font><br>
8  <font color="#000000" size="6"><b>Introduction</b>  <font color="#000000" size="6"><b>Introduction</b>
9  </font></td></tr></table></td></tr></table><p>  </font></td></tr></table></td></tr></table><p>
 <!-- The first 10 lines are cut away by the homepage updating script.  -->  
   
10    
11  <!--  <!--
12    
13  $Id: intro.html,v 1.46 2005/06/04 12:02:17 debug Exp $  $Id: intro.html,v 1.87 2006/06/23 10:00:41 debug Exp $
14    
15  Copyright (C) 2003-2005  Anders Gavare.  All rights reserved.  Copyright (C) 2003-2006  Anders Gavare.  All rights reserved.
16    
17  Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without  Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
18  modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:  modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:
# Line 48  SUCH DAMAGE. Line 45  SUCH DAMAGE.
45  <h2>Introduction</h2>  <h2>Introduction</h2>
46    
47  <p>  <p>
48    <table border="0" width="99%"><tr><td valign="top" align="left">
49  <ul>  <ul>
50    <li><a href="#overview">Overview</a>    <li><a href="#overview">Overview</a>
51    <li><a href="#free">Is GXemul Free software?</a>    <li><a href="#free">Is GXemul Free software?</a>
52    <li><a href="#build">How to compile/build the emulator</a>    <li><a href="#build">How to compile/build the emulator</a>
53    <li><a href="#run">How to run the emulator</a>    <li><a href="#run">How to run the emulator</a>
54    <li><a href="#cpus">Which CPU types does GXemul emulate?</a>    <li><a href="#cpus">Which processor architectures does GXemul emulate?</a>
55      <li><a href="#hosts">Which host architectures are supported?</a>
56      <li><a href="#translation">What kind of translation does GXemul use?</a>
57    <li><a href="#accuracy">Emulation accuracy</a>    <li><a href="#accuracy">Emulation accuracy</a>
58    <li><a href="#emulmodes">Which machines does GXemul emulate?</a>    <li><a href="#emulmodes">Which machines does GXemul emulate?</a>
   <li><a href="#guestos">Which guest OSes are possible to run?</a>  
59  </ul>  </ul>
60    </td><td valign="center" align="center">
61    <a href="20050317-example.png"><img src="20050317-example_small.png"></a>
62    <p>NetBSD/pmax 1.6.2 with X11<br>running in GXemul</td></tr></table>
63    
64    
65    
# Line 67  SUCH DAMAGE. Line 68  SUCH DAMAGE.
68  <a name="overview"></a>  <a name="overview"></a>
69  <h3>Overview:</h3>  <h3>Overview:</h3>
70    
71  GXemul is a machine emulator, which can be used to experiment with  GXemul is an experimental instruction-level machine emulator. Several
72  binary code for (among others) MIPS-based machines. Several emulation  emulation modes are available. In some modes, processors and surrounding
 modes are available. For some emulation modes, processors and surrounding  
73  hardware components are emulated well enough to let unmodified operating  hardware components are emulated well enough to let unmodified operating
74  systems run as if they were running on a real machine.  systems (e.g. NetBSD) run as if they were running on a real machine.
   
 <p>  
 Devices and CPUs are not simulated with 100% accuracy. They are only  
 "faked" well enough to make operating systems (eg NetBSD) run without  
 complaining too much. Still, the emulator could be of interest for  
 academic research and experiments, such as when learning how to write  
 operating system code.  
75    
76  <p>  <p>Devices and processors (ARM, MIPS, PowerPC) are not simulated with 100%
77  The emulator is written in C, does not depend on external libraries (except  accuracy. They are only ``faked'' well enough to allow guest operating
78  X11, but that is optional), and should compile and run on most Unix-like  systems run without complaining too much. Still, the emulator could be of
79  systems. If it doesn't, then that is a bug.  interest for academic research and experiments, such as when learning how
80  (You do not need any MIPS compiler toolchain to build or use GXemul.  to write operating system code.
81  If you need to compile MIPS binaries from sources, then of course you need  
82  such a toolchain, but that is completely separate from GXemul.)  <p>The emulator is written in C, does not depend on third-party libraries,
83    and should compile and run on most 64-bit and 32-bit Unix-like systems.
84  <p>  
85  The emulator contains code which tries to emulate the workings of CPUs and  <p>The emulator contains code which tries to emulate the workings of CPUs
86  surrounding hardware found in real machines, but it does not contain any  and surrounding hardware found in real machines, but it does not contain
87  ROM code. You will need some form of program (in binary form) to run in  any ROM code. You will need some form of program (in binary form) to run
88  the emulator. For many emulation modes, PROM calls are handled by the  in the emulator. For many emulation modes, PROM calls are handled by the
89  emulator itself, so you do not need to use any ROM image at all.  emulator itself, so you do not need to use any ROM image at all.
90    
91  <p>  <p>You can use pre-compiled kernels (for example NetBSD kernels, or
92  You can use pre-compiled kernels (for example NetBSD kernels, or Linux),  Linux), or other programs that are in binary format, and in some cases
93  or other programs that are in binary format, and in some cases even actual  even actual ROM images. A couple of different file formats are supported
94  ROM images. A couple of different file formats are supported (ELF, a.out,  (ELF, a.out, ECOFF, SREC, and raw binaries).
 ECOFF, SREC, and raw binaries).  
95    
96  <p>  <p>If you do not have a kernel as a separate file, but you have a bootable
 If you do not have a kernel as a separate file, but you have a bootable  
97  disk image, then it is sometimes possible to boot directly from that  disk image, then it is sometimes possible to boot directly from that
98  image. (This works for example with DECstation emulation, or when booting  image. (This works for example with DECstation emulation, or when booting
99  from ISO9660 CDROM images.)  from ISO9660 CDROM images.)
# Line 112  from ISO9660 CDROM images.) Line 103  from ISO9660 CDROM images.)
103    
104    
105    
106    
107    
108  <p><br>  <p><br>
109  <a name="free"></a>  <a name="free"></a>
110  <h3>Is GXemul Free software?</h3>  <h3>Is GXemul Free software?</h3>
# Line 122  confusing to you, you might want to read Line 115  confusing to you, you might want to read
115  four freedoms associated with Free software, <a  four freedoms associated with Free software, <a
116  href="http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html">http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html</a>.)  href="http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html">http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html</a>.)
117    
118  <p>  <p>The code I have written is released under a 3-clause BSD-style license
119  The code I have written is released under a 3-clause BSD-style license  (or "revised BSD-style" if one wants to use <a
120  (or "revised BSD-style" if one wants to use  href="http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/bsd.html">GNU jargon</a>). Apart from
121  <a href="http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/bsd.html">GNU jargon</a>).  the code I have written, some files are copied from other sources such as
122  Apart from the code I have written, some files are copied from other sources  NetBSD, for example header files containing symbolic names of bitfields in
123  such as NetBSD, for example header files containing symbolic names of  device registers. They are also covered by similar licenses, but with some
124  bitfields in device registers. They are also covered by similar licenses,  additional clauses. The main point, however, is that the licenses require
125  but with some additional clauses. If you plan to redistribute GXemul  that the original Copyright and license terms are included when you make a
126  (for example as a binary package), or reuse code from GXemul,  copy or modification.
127  then you should check those files for their license terms.  
128    <p>If you plan to redistribute GXemul <i>without</i> supplying the source
129  <p>  code, then you need to comply with each individual source file some other
130  (The licenses usually require that the original Copyright and license  way, for example by writing additional documentation containing copyright
131  terms are included when you make a copy or modification. The "easiest way  notes. I have not done this, since I do not plan on making distributions
132  out" if you plan to redistribute code from GXemul is to simply supply  without source code. You need to check all individual files for details.
133  the source code. You should however check individual files for details.)  The "easiest way out" if you plan to redistribute code from GXemul is, of
134    course, to let it remain open source and simply supply the source code.
135    
136    <p>In case you want to reuse parts of GXemul, but you need to do that
137    under a different license (e.g. the GPL), then contact me and I might
138    re-license/dual-license files on a case-by-case basis.
139    
140    
141    
# Line 153  Uncompress the .tar.gz distribution file Line 151  Uncompress the .tar.gz distribution file
151          $ <b>make</b>          $ <b>make</b>
152  </pre>  </pre>
153    
154  <p>  <p>This should work on most Unix-like systems. GXemul does not require any
155  This should work on most Unix-like systems. If it doesn't, then  specific libraries to build, however, if you build on a system which does
156  mail me a bug report.  not have X11 libraries installed, some functionality will be lost.
157    
158  <p>  <p>The emulator's performance is highly dependent on both runtime settings
 (Note for Windows users: there is a possibility that some releases  
 and/or snapshots will also work with Cygwin, but I can't promise that.)  
   
 <p>  
 The emulator's performance is highly dependent on both runtime settings  
159  and on compiler settings, so you might want to experiment with different  and on compiler settings, so you might want to experiment with different
160  CC and CFLAGS environment variable values. For example, on a modern PC,  CC and CFLAGS environment variable values. For example, on an AMD Athlon
161  you could try the following:  host, you might want to try setting <tt>CFLAGS</tt> to <tt>-march=athlon</tt>
162  <p>  before running <tt>configure</tt>.
 <pre>  
         $ <b>CFLAGS="-mcpu=pentium4 -O3" ./configure</b>  
         $ <b>make</b>  
 </pre>  
163    
 <p>  
 Run <b><tt>./configure --help</tt></b> to get a list of configure options. (The  
 possible options differ between different releases and snapshots.)  
164    
165    
166    
# Line 224  their original meaning in those xterm wi Line 210  their original meaning in those xterm wi
210    
211  <p><br>  <p><br>
212  <a name="cpus"></a>  <a name="cpus"></a>
213  <h3>Which CPU types does GXemul emulate?</h3>  <h3>Which processor architectures does GXemul emulate?</h3>
214    
215  <h4>MIPS:</h4>  The architectures that are emulated well enough to let at least one
216    guest operating system run (per architecture) are ARM, MIPS, and
217    PowerPC.
218    
 Emulation of R4000, which is a 64-bit CPU, was my initial goal.  
 R2000/R3000-like CPUs (32-bit), R1x000, and generic MIPS32/MIPS64-style  
 CPUs are also emulated, and are hopefully almost as stable as the R4000  
 emulation.  
219    
 <p>  
 I have written an experimental dynamic binary translation subsystem.  
 This gives higher total performance than interpreting one instruction at a  
 time and executing it. (If you wish to enable bintrans, add <b>-b</b> to  
 the command line, but keep in mind that it is still experimental.)  
220    
221    
 <h4>URISC:</h4>  
222    
223  I have implemented an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/URISC">URISC</a>  <p><br>
224  emulation mode, just for fun. The only instruction available in an URISC  <a name="hosts"></a>
225  machine is "reverse subtract and skip on borrow". (It is probably not  <h3>Which host architectures are supported?</h3>
 worth trying to do bintrans with URISC, because any reasonable URISC  
 program relies on self-modifying code, which is bad for bintrans  
 performance.)  
226    
227    As of release 0.4.0 of GXemul, the old binary translation subsystem, which
228    was used for emulation of MIPS processors on Alpha and i386 hosts, has
229    been removed. The current dynamic translation subsystem should work on any
230    host.
231    
 <h4>POWER/PowerPC</h4>  
232    
 There is some code for 64-bit (and 32-bit) POWER/PowerPC emulation, enough  
 to run "Hello World", but not enough to run complete operating systems.    
 This mode isn't really working yet.  
233    
234    
 <h4>Other CPU types:</h4>  
235    
236  Some other CPU architectures (such as x86) can also be partially emulated.  <p><br>
237  These are not enabled by default though, because of their unstable-ness.  <a name="translation"></a>
238    <h3>What kind of translation does GXemul use?</h3>
239    
240    <b>Static vs. dynamic:</b>
241    
242    <p>In order to support guest operating systems, which can overwrite old
243    code pages in memory with new code, it is necessary to translate code
244    dynamically. It is not possible to do a "one-pass" (static) translation.
245    Self-modifying code and Just-in-Time compilers running inside
246    the emulator are other things that would not work with a static
247    translator. GXemul is a dynamic translator. However, it does not
248    necessarily translate into native code, like many other emulators.
249    
250    <p><b>"Runnable" Intermediate Representation:</b>
251    
252    <p>Dynamic translators usually translate from the emulated architecture
253    (e.g. MIPS) into a kind of <i>intermediate representation</i> (IR), and then
254    to native code (e.g. AMD64 or x86 code). Since one of my main goals for
255    GXemul is to keep everything as portable as possible, I have tried to make
256    sure that the IR is something which can be executed regardless of whether
257    the final step (translation from IR to native code) has been implemented
258    or not.
259    
260    <p>The IR in GXemul consists of arrays of pointers to functions, and a few
261    arguments which are passed along to those functions. The functions are
262    implemented in either manually hand-coded C, or automatically generated C.
263    In any case, this is all statically linked into the GXemul binary at link
264    time.
265    
266    <p>Here is a simplified diagram of how these arrays work.
267    
268    <p><center><img src="simplified_dyntrans.png"></center>
269    
270    <p>There is one instruction call slot for every possible program counter
271    location. In the MIPS case, instruction words are 32 bits in length,
272    and pages are (usually) 4 KB large, resulting in 1024 instruction call
273    slots. After the last of these instruction calls, there is an additional
274    call to a special "end of page" function (which doesn't count as an executed
275    instruction). This function switches to the first instruction
276    on the next virtual page (which might cause exceptions, etc).
277    
278    <p>The complexity of individual instructions vary. A simple example of
279    what an instruction can look like is the MIPS <tt>addiu</tt> instruction:
280    <pre>
281            X(addiu)
282            {
283                    reg(ic->arg[1]) = (int32_t)
284                        ((int32_t)reg(ic->arg[0]) + (int32_t)ic->arg[2]);
285            }
286    </pre>
287    
288    <p>It stores the result of a 32-bit addition of the register at arg[0]
289    with the immediate value arg[2] (treating both as signed 32-bit
290    integers) into register arg[1]. If the emulated CPU is a 64-bit CPU,
291    then this will store a correctly sign-extended value into arg[1].
292    If it is a 32-bit CPU, then only the lowest 32 bits will be stored,
293    and the high part ignored. <tt>X(addiu)</tt> is expanded to
294    <tt>mips_instr_addiu</tt> in the 64-bit case, and <tt>mips32_instr_addiu</tt>
295    in the 32-bit case. Both are compiled into the GXemul executable; no code
296    is created during run-time.
297    
298    <p>Here are examples of what the <tt>addiu</tt> instruction actually
299    looks like when it is compiled, on various host architectures:
300    
301    <p><center><table border="0">
302        <tr><td><b>GCC 4.0.1 on Alpha:</b></td>
303            <td width="35"></td><td></td>
304        <tr>
305            <td valign="top">
306    <pre>mips_instr_addiu:
307         ldq     t1,8(a1)
308         ldq     t2,24(a1)
309         ldq     t3,16(a1)
310         ldq     t0,0(t1)
311         addl    t0,t2,t0
312         stq     t0,0(t3)
313         ret</pre>
314            </td>
315            <td></td>
316            <td valign="top">
317    <pre>mips32_instr_addiu:
318         ldq     t2,8(a1)
319         ldq     t0,24(a1)
320         ldq     t3,16(a1)
321         ldl     t1,0(t2)
322         addq    t0,t1,t0
323         stl     t0,0(t3)
324         ret</pre>
325            </td>
326        </tr>
327    
328        <tr><td><b><br>GCC 3.4.4 on AMD64:</b></td>
329        <tr>
330            <td valign="top">
331    <pre>mips_instr_addiu:
332         mov    0x8(%rsi),%rdx
333         mov    0x18(%rsi),%rax
334         mov    0x10(%rsi),%rcx
335         add    (%rdx),%eax
336         cltq
337         mov    %rax,(%rcx)
338         retq</pre>
339            </td>
340            <td></td>
341            <td valign="top">
342    <pre>mips32_instr_addiu:
343         mov    0x8(%rsi),%rcx
344         mov    0x10(%rsi),%rdx
345         mov    (%rcx),%eax
346         add    0x18(%rsi),%eax
347         mov    %eax,(%rdx)
348         retq</pre>
349            </td>
350        </tr>
351    
352        <tr><td><b><br>GCC 4.0.1 on i386:</b></td>
353        <tr>
354            <td valign="top">
355    <pre>mips_instr_addiu:
356         mov    0x8(%esp),%eax
357         mov    0x8(%eax),%ecx
358         mov    0x4(%eax),%edx
359         mov    0xc(%eax),%eax
360         add    (%edx),%eax
361         mov    %eax,(%ecx)
362         cltd
363         mov    %edx,0x4(%ecx)
364         ret</pre>
365            </td>
366            <td></td>
367            <td valign="top">
368    <pre>mips32_instr_addiu:
369         mov    0x8(%esp),%eax
370         mov    0x8(%eax),%ecx
371         mov    0x4(%eax),%edx
372         mov    0xc(%eax),%eax
373         add    (%edx),%eax
374         mov    %eax,(%ecx)
375         ret</pre>
376            </td>
377        </tr>
378    </table></center>
379    
380    <p>On 64-bit hosts, there is not much difference, but on 32-bit hosts (and
381    to some extent on AMD64), the difference is enough to make it worthwhile.
382    
383    
384    <p><b>Performance:</b>
385    
386    <p>The performance of using this kind of runnable IR is obviously lower
387    than what can be achieved by emulators using native code generation, but
388    can be significantly higher than using a naive fetch-decode-execute
389    interpretation loop. In my opinion, using a runnable IR is an interesting
390    compromise.
391    
392    <p>The overhead per emulated instruction is usually around or below
393    approximately 10 host instructions. This is very much dependent on your
394    host architecture and what compiler and compiler switches you are using.
395    Added to this instruction count is (of course) also the C code used to
396    implement each specific instruction.
397    
398    <p><b>Instruction Combinations:</b>
399    
400    <p>Short, common instruction sequences can sometimes be replaced by a
401    "compound" instruction. An example could be a compare instruction followed
402    by a conditional branch instruction. The advantages of instruction
403    combinations are that
404    <ul>
405      <li>the amortized overhead per instruction is slightly reduced, and
406      <p>
407      <li>the host's compiler can make a good job at optimizing the common
408            instruction sequence.
409    </ul>
410    
411    <p>The special cases where instruction combinations give the most gain
412    are in the cores of string/memory manipulation functions such as
413    <tt>memset()</tt> or <tt>strlen()</tt>. The core loop can then (at least
414    to some extent) be replaced by a native call to the equivalent function.
415    
416    <p>The implementations of compound instructions still keep track of the
417    number of executed instructions, etc. When single-stepping, these
418    translations are invalidated, and replaced by normal instruction calls
419    (one per emulated instruction).
420    
421    <p><b>Native Code Back-ends: (not in this release)</b>
422    
423    <p>In theory, it will be possible to implement native code generation
424    (similar to what is used in high-performance emulators such as QEMU),
425    as long as that generated code abides to the C ABI on the host, but
426    for now I wanted to make sure that GXemul works without such native
427    code back-ends. For this reason, as of release 0.4.0, GXemul is
428    completely free of native code back-ends.
429    
430    
431    
432    
# Line 271  These are not enabled by default though, Line 437  These are not enabled by default though,
437  <h3>Emulation accuracy:</h3>  <h3>Emulation accuracy:</h3>
438    
439  GXemul is an instruction-level emulator; things that would happen in  GXemul is an instruction-level emulator; things that would happen in
440  several steps within a real CPU are not taken into account (eg. pipe-line  several steps within a real CPU are not taken into account (e.g. pipe-line
441  stalls or out-of-order execution). Still, instruction-level accuracy seems  stalls or out-of-order execution). Still, instruction-level accuracy seems
442  to be enough to be able to run complete guest operating systems inside the  to be enough to be able to run complete guest operating systems inside the
443  emulator.  emulator.
444    
445  <p>  <p>The existance of instruction and data caches is "faked" to let
446  Caches are by default not emulated. In some cases, the existance of caches  operating systems think that they are there, but for all practical
447  is "faked" to let operating systems think that they are there. (There is  purposes, these caches are non-working.
448  some old code for R2000/R3000 caches, but it has probably suffered from  
449  bitrot by now.)  <p>The emulator is <i>not</i> timing-accurate. It can be run in a
450    "deterministic" mode, <tt><b>-D</b></tt>. The meaning of deterministic is
451    simply that running two emulations with the same settings will result in
452    identical runs. Obviously, this requires that no user interaction is
453    taking place, and that clock speeds are fixed with the <tt><b>-I</b></tt>
454    option. (Deterministic in this case does <i>not</i> mean that the
455    emulation will be identical to some actual real-world machine.)
456    
457    <p>(Note that user interaction means <i>both</i> input to the emulated
458    program/OS, and interaction with the emulator's debugger. Breaking into the
459    debugger and then continuing execution may affect when/how interrupts
460    occur.)
461    
 <p>  
 The emulator is <i>not</i> timing-accurate. It can be run in a  
 "deterministic" mode, <tt><b>-D</b></tt>. The meaning of deterministic is  
 simply that running two emulations with the same settings will result in  
 identical runs. Obviously, this requires that no user interaction is  
 taking place, and that clock speeds are fixed with the <tt><b>-I</b></tt>  
 option. (Deterministic in this case does <i>not</i> mean that the emulation  
 will be identical to some actual real-world machine.)  
462    
463    
464    
# Line 304  are emulated well enough to run at least Line 473  are emulated well enough to run at least
473    
474  <p>  <p>
475  <ul>  <ul>
476    <li><b>DECstation 5000/200</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;("3max")    <li><b><u>ARM</u></b>
477          <br>Serial controller (including keyboard and mouse), ethernet,    <ul>
478          SCSI, and graphical framebuffers.      <li><b>CATS</b> (NetBSD/cats, OpenBSD/cats)
479        <li><b>IQ80321</b> (NetBSD/evbarm)
480      </ul>
481    <p>    <p>
482    <li><b>Acer Pica-61</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;(an ARC machine)    <li><b><u>MIPS</u></b>
483          <br>Serial controller, "VGA" text console, and SCSI.    <ul>
484        <li><b>DECstation 5000/200</b> (NetBSD/pmax, OpenBSD/pmax, Ultrix,
485            Linux/DECstation, Sprite)
486        <li><b>Acer Pica-61</b> (NetBSD/arc)
487        <li><b>NEC MobilePro 770, 780, 800, and 880</b> (NetBSD/hpcmips)
488        <li><b>Cobalt</b> (NetBSD/cobalt)
489        <li><b>Malta</b> (NetBSD/evbmips)
490        <li><b>SGI O2 (aka IP32)</b> <font color="#0000e0">(<super>*</super>)</font>
491            (NetBSD/sgi)
492      </ul>
493    <p>    <p>
494    <li><b>NEC MobilePro 770, 780, 800, and 880</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;(HPCmips machines)    <li><b><u>PowerPC</u></b>
495          <br>Framebuffer, keyboard, and a PCMCIA IDE controller.    <ul>
496    <p>      <li><b>IBM 6050/6070 (PReP, PowerPC Reference Platform)</b> (NetBSD/prep)
497    <li><b>Cobalt</b>    </ul>
         <br>Serial controller and PCI IDE.  
498  </ul>  </ul>
499    
500  <p>  <p><small><font color="#0000e0">(<super>*</super>)</font> =
501  There is code in GXemul for emulation of many other machine types;  Enough for root-on-nfs, but not for disk boot.)</small>
 the degree to which these work range from "almost" being able to run  
 a complete OS, to almost completely unsupported (perhaps just enough  
 support to output a few boot messages via serial console).  
502    
503  <p>  <p>There is code in GXemul for emulation of many other machine types; the
504  In addition to emulating real machines, there is also a "test-machine".  degree to which these work range from almost being able to run a complete
505  A test-machine consists of one or more CPUs and a few experimental  OS, to almost completely unsupported (perhaps just enough support to
506  devices such as:  output a few boot messages via serial console).
507    
508    <p>In addition to emulating real machines, there is also a "test-machine".
509    A test-machine consists of one or more CPUs and a few experimental devices
510    such as:
511    
512  <p>  <p>
513  <ul>  <ul>
514    <li>a console I/O device (putchar() and getchar()...)    <li>a console I/O device (putchar() and getchar()...)
515    <li>an inter-processor communication device, for SMP experiments    <li>an inter-processor communication device, for SMP experiments
516    <li>a very simple linear framebuffer device (for graphics output)    <li>a very simple linear framebuffer device (for graphics output)
517      <li>a simple SCSI disk controller
518      <li>a simple ethernet controller
519  </ul>  </ul>
520    
521  <p>  <p>This mode is useful if you wish to run experimental code, but do not
 This mode is useful if you wish to run experimental code, but do not  
522  wish to target any specific real-world machine type, for example for  wish to target any specific real-world machine type, for example for
523  educational purposes.  educational purposes.
524    
525  <p>  <p>You can read more about these experimental devices <a
526  You can read more about these experimental devices  href="experiments.html#expdevices">here</a>.
 <a href="experiments.html#expdevices">here</a>.  
   
   
527    
528    
529    
530    
531    
 <p><br>  
 <a name="guestos"></a>  
 <h3>Which guest OSes are possible to run?</h3>  
   
 This table lists the guest OSes that run well enough to be considered  
 working in the emulator. They can boot from a harddisk image and be  
 interacted with similar to a real machine.  
   
 <p>  
 <center><table border="0">  
         <tr>  
           <td width="10"></td>  
           <td align="center"><a href="20050317-example.png"><img src="20050317-example_small.png"></a></td>  
           <td width="15"></td>  
           <td><a href="http://www.netbsd.org/Ports/pmax/">NetBSD/pmax</a>  
                 <br>DECstation 5000/200</td>  
           <td width="30"></td>  
           <td align="center"><a href="20041024-netbsd-arc-installed.gif"><img src="20041024-netbsd-arc-installed_small.gif"></a></td>  
           <td width="15"></td>  
           <td><a href="http://www.netbsd.org/Ports/arc/">NetBSD/arc</a>  
                 <br>Acer Pica-61</td>  
   
         </tr>  
   
         <tr><td height="10"></td></tr>  
   
         <tr>  
           <td></td>  
           <td align="center"><a href="openbsd-pmax-20040710.png"><img src="openbsd-pmax-20040710_small.png"></a></td>  
           <td></td>  
           <td><a href="http://www.openbsd.org/pmax.html">OpenBSD/pmax</a>  
                 <br>DECstation 5000/200</td>  
           <td></td>  
           <td align="center"><a href="20041024-openbsd-arc-installed.gif"><img src="20041024-openbsd-arc-installed_small.gif"></a></td>  
           <td></td>  
           <td><a href="http://www.openbsd.org/arc.html">OpenBSD/arc</a>  
                 <br>Acer Pica-61</td>  
         </tr>  
   
         <tr><td height="10"></td></tr>  
   
         <tr>  
           <td></td>  
           <td align="center"><a href="ultrix4.5-20040706.png"><img src="ultrix4.5-20040706_small.gif"></a></td>  
           <td></td>  
           <td>Ultrix/RISC<br>DECstation 5000/200</td>  
           <td></td>  
           <td align="center"><a href="20041213-debian_4.png"><img src="20041213-debian_4_small.gif"></a></td>  
           <td></td>  
           <td><a href="http://www.debian.org/">Debian&nbsp;GNU/Linux</a>&nbsp;<super>*</super>  
                 <br>DECstation 5000/200</td>  
         </tr>  
   
         <tr><td height="10"></td></tr>  
   
         <tr>  
           <td></td>  
           <td align="center"><a href="sprite-20040711.png"><img src="sprite-20040711_small.png"></a></td>  
           <td></td>  
           <td><a href="http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/projects/sprite/retrospective.html">Sprite</a>  
                 <br>DECstation 5000/200</td>  
           <td></td>  
           <td align="center"><a href="20041129-redhat_mips.png"><img src="20041129-redhat_mips_small.png"></a></td>  
           <td></td>  
           <td>Redhat&nbsp;Linux&nbsp;<super>*</super>  
                 <br>DECstation 5000/200</td>  
         </tr>  
   
         <tr><td height="10"></td></tr>  
   
         <tr>  
           <td></td>  
           <td align="center"><a href="20050427-netbsd-hpcmips-2.png"><img src="20050427-netbsd-hpcmips-2_small.png"></a></td>  
           <td></td>  
           <td><a href="http://www.netbsd.org/Ports/hpcmips/">NetBSD/hpcmips</a>  
                 <br>NEC MobilePro 770, 780, 800, 880</td>  
           <td></td>  
           <td align="center"><a href="20050413-netbsd-cobalt.png"><img src="20050413-netbsd-cobalt_small.png"></a></td>  
           <td></td>  
           <td><a href="http://www.netbsd.org/Ports/cobalt/">NetBSD/cobalt</a>  
                 <br>Cobalt</td>  
         </tr>  
   
 </table></center>  
   
   
 <p><br>  
   
 <super>*</super> Although Linux runs under DECstation emulation, the  
 default 2.4.27 kernel in Debian GNU/Linux does not support keyboards on  
 the 5000/200 (the specific DECstation model being emulated), so when the  
 login prompt is reached you cannot interact with the system. Kaj-Michael  
 Lang has compiled and made available a newer kernel from the current  
 mips-linux development tree. You can find it here: <a  
 href="http://home.tal.org/~milang/o2/kernels/">http://home.tal.org/~milang/o2/kernels</a>/<a  
 href="http://home.tal.org/~milang/o2/kernels/vmlinux-2.4.29-rc2-r3k-mipsel-decstation">vmlinux-2.4.29-rc2-r3k-mipsel-decstation</a>  
 This newer kernel supports keyboard input, but it does not have Debian's  
 ethernet patches, so you will not be able to use keyboard/framebuffer  
 <i>and</i> networking at the same time.  
   
532    
533  </body>  </body>
534  </html>  </html>

Legend:
Removed from v.6  
changed lines
  Added in v.24

  ViewVC Help
Powered by ViewVC 1.1.26