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<html><head><title>Gavare's eXperimental Emulator: Technical details</title> |
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<b>Gavare's eXperimental Emulator: </b></font> |
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<font color="#000000" size="6"><b>Technical details</b> |
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$Id: technical.html,v 1.62 2005/08/16 05:15:24 debug Exp $ |
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Copyright (C) 2004-2005 Anders Gavare. All rights reserved. |
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Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without |
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1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright |
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<a href="./">Back to the index</a> |
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<p><br> |
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<h2>Technical details</h2> |
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|
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<p>This page describes some of the internals of GXemul. |
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|
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<p> |
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<ul> |
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<li><a href="#speed">Speed and emulation modes</a> |
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<li><a href="#net">Networking</a> |
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<li><a href="#devices">Emulation of hardware devices</a> |
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</ul> |
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<p><br> |
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<a name="speed"></a> |
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<h3>Speed and emulation modes</h3> |
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|
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So, how fast is GXemul? There is no good answer to this. There is |
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especially no answer to the question <b>What is the slowdown factor?</b>, |
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because the host architecture and emulated architecture can usually not be |
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compared just like that. |
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|
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<p>Performance depends on several factors, including (but not limited to) |
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host architecture, host clock speed, which compiler and compiler flags |
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were used to build the emulator, what the workload is, and so on. For |
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example, if an emulated operating system tries to read a block from disk, |
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from its point of view the read was instantaneous (no waiting). So 1 MIPS |
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in an emulated OS might have taken more than one million instructions on a |
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real machine. |
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|
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<p>Also, if the emulator says it has executed 1 million instructions, and |
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the CPU family in question was capable of scalar execution (i.e. one cycle |
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per instruction), it might still have taken more than 1 million cycles on |
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a real machine because of cache misses and similar micro-architectural |
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penalties that are not simulated by GXemul. |
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|
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<p>Because of these issues, it is in my opinion best to measure |
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performance as the actual (real-world) time it takes to perform a task |
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with the emulator. Typical examples would be "How long does it take to |
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install NetBSD?", or "How long does it take to compile XYZ inside NetBSD |
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in the emulator?". |
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|
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<p>The emulation technique used varies depending on which processor type |
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is being emulated. (One of my main goals with GXemul is to experiment with |
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different kinds of emulation, so these might change in the future.) |
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|
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<ul> |
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<li><b>MIPS:</b><br> |
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There are two emulation modes. The most important one is an |
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implementation of a <i>dynamic binary translator</i>. |
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(Compared to real binary translators, though, GXemul's bintrans |
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subsystem is very simple and does not perform very well.) |
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This mode can be used on Alpha and i386 host. The other emulation |
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mode is simple interpretation, where an instruction is read from |
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emulated memory, and interpreted one-at-a-time. (Slow, but it |
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works. It can be forcefully used by using the <tt>-B</tt> command |
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line option.) |
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<p> |
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<li><b>All other modes:</b><br> |
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These are under development, using a new dynamic translation |
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system. This system does not use host-specific backends. |
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Speed is slower than real binary translation, but faster than |
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traditional interpretation, and with some tricks it will hopefully |
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still give reasonable speed. These modes don't really work yet, |
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and are not enabled by default in the stable release. |
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</ul> |
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<p><br> |
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<a name="net"></a> |
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<h3>Networking</h3> |
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|
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<font color="#ff0000">NOTE/TODO: This section is very old and a bit |
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out of date.</font> |
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|
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<p>Running an entire operating system under emulation is very interesting |
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in itself, but for several reasons, running a modern OS without access to |
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TCP/IP networking is a bit akward. Hence, I feel the need to implement |
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TCP/IP (networking) support in the emulator. |
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|
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<p> |
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As far as I have understood it, there seems to be two different ways to go: |
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|
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<ol> |
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<li>Forward ethernet packets from the emulated ethernet controller to |
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the host machine's ethernet controller, and capture incoming |
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packets on the host's controller, giving them back to the |
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emulated OS. Characteristics are: |
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<ul> |
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<li>Requires <i>direct</i> access to the host's NIC, which |
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means on most platforms that the emulator cannot be |
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run as a normal user! |
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<li>Reduced portability, as not every host operating system |
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uses the same programming interface for dealing with |
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hardware ethernet controllers directly. |
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<li>When run on a switched network, it might be problematic to |
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connect from the emulated OS to the OS running on the |
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host, as packets sent out on the host's NIC are not |
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received by itself. (?) |
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<li>All specific networking protocols will be handled by the |
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physical network. |
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</ul> |
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<p> |
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or |
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<p> |
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<li>Whenever the emulated ethernet controller wishes to send a packet, |
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the emulator looks at the packet and creates a response. Packets |
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that can have an immediate response never go outside the emulator, |
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other packet types have to be converted into suitable other |
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connection types (UDP, TCP, etc). Characteristics: |
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<ul> |
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<li>Each packet type sent out on the emulated NIC must be handled. |
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This means that I have to do a lot of coding. |
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(I like this, because it gives me an opportunity to |
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learn about networking protocols.) |
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<li>By not relying on access to the host's NIC directly, |
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portability is maintained. (It would be sad if the networking |
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portion of a portable emulator isn't as portable as the |
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rest of the emulator.) |
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<li>The emulator can be run as a normal user process, does |
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not require root privilegies. |
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<li>Connecting from the emulated OS to the host's OS should |
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not be problematic. |
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<li>The emulated OS will experience the network just as a single |
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machine behind a NAT gateway/firewall would. The emulated |
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OS is thus automatically protected from the outside world. |
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</ul> |
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</ol> |
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|
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<p> |
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Some emulators/simulators use the first approach, while others use the |
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second. I think that SIMH and QEMU are examples of emulators using the |
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first and second approach, respectively. |
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|
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<p> |
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Since I have choosen the second kind of implementation, I have to write |
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support explicitly for any kind of network protocol that should be |
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supported. As of 2004-07-09, the following has been implemented and seems |
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to work under at least NetBSD/pmax and OpenBSD/pmax under DECstation 5000/200 |
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emulation (-E dec -e 3max): |
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|
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<p> |
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<ul> |
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<li>ARP requests sent out from the emulated NIC are interpreted, |
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and converted to ARP responses. (This is used by the emulated OS |
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to find out the MAC address of the gateway.) |
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<li>ICMP echo requests (that is the kind of packet produced by the |
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<b><tt>ping</tt></b> program) are interpreted and converted to ICMP echo |
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replies, <i>regardless of the IP address</i>. This means that |
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running ping from within the emulated OS will <i>always</i> |
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receive a response. The ping packets never leave the emulated |
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environment. |
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<li>UDP packets are interpreted and passed along to the outside world. |
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If the emulator receives an UDP packet from the outside world, it |
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is converted into an UDP packet for the emulated OS. (This is not |
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implemented very well yet, but seems to be enough for nameserver |
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lookups, tftp file transfers, and NFS mounts using UDP.) |
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<li>TCP packets are interpreted one at a time, similar to how UDP |
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packets are handled (but more state is kept for each connection). |
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<font color="#ff0000">NOTE: Much of the TCP handling code is very |
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ugly and hardcoded.</font> |
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<!-- |
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<li>RARP is not implemented yet. (I haven't needed it so far.) |
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--> |
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</ul> |
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<p> |
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The gateway machine, which is the only "other" machine that the emulated |
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OS sees on its emulated network, works as a NAT-style firewall/gateway. It |
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usually has a fixed IPv4 address of <tt>10.0.0.254</tt>. An OS running in |
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the emulator would usually have an address of the form <tt>10.x.x.x</tt>; |
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a typical choice would be <tt>10.0.0.1</tt>. |
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|
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<p> |
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Inside emulated NetBSD/pmax or OpenBSD/pmax, running the following |
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commands should configure the emulated NIC: |
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<pre> |
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# <b>ifconfig le0 10.0.0.1</b> |
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# <b>route add default 10.0.0.254</b> |
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add net default: gateway 10.0.0.254 |
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</pre> |
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|
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<p> |
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If you want nameserver lookups to work, you need a valid /etc/resolv.conf |
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as well: |
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<pre> |
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# <b>echo nameserver 129.16.1.3 > /etc/resolv.conf</b> |
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</pre> |
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(But replace <tt>129.16.1.3</tt> with the actual real-world IP address of |
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your nearest nameserver.) |
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|
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<p> |
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Now, host lookups should work: |
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<pre> |
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# <b>host -a www.netbsd.org</b> |
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Trying null domain |
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rcode = 0 (Success), ancount=2 |
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The following answer is not authoritative: |
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The following answer is not verified as authentic by the server: |
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www.netbsd.org 86400 IN AAAA 2001:4f8:4:7:290:27ff:feab:19a7 |
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www.netbsd.org 86400 IN A 204.152.184.116 |
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For authoritative answers, see: |
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netbsd.org 83627 IN NS uucp-gw-2.pa.dec.com |
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netbsd.org 83627 IN NS ns.netbsd.org |
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netbsd.org 83627 IN NS adns1.berkeley.edu |
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netbsd.org 83627 IN NS adns2.berkeley.edu |
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netbsd.org 83627 IN NS uucp-gw-1.pa.dec.com |
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Additional information: |
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ns.netbsd.org 83627 IN A 204.152.184.164 |
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uucp-gw-1.pa.dec.com 172799 IN A 204.123.2.18 |
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uucp-gw-2.pa.dec.com 172799 IN A 204.123.2.19 |
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</pre> |
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|
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<p> |
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At this point, UDP and TCP should (mostly) work. |
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|
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<p> |
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Here is an example of how to configure a server machine and an emulated |
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client machine for sharing files via NFS: |
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|
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<p> |
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(This is very useful if you want to share entire directory trees |
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between the emulated environment and another machine. These instruction |
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will work for FreeBSD, if you are running something else, use your |
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imagination to modify them.) |
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|
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<p> |
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<ul> |
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<li>On the server, add a line to your /etc/exports file, exporting |
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the files you wish to use in the emulator:<pre> |
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<b>/tftpboot -mapall=nobody -ro 123.11.22.33</b> |
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</pre> |
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where 123.11.22.33 is the IP address of the machine running the |
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emulator process, as seen from the outside world. |
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<p> |
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<li>Then start up the programs needed to serve NFS via UDP. Note the |
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-n argument to mountd. This is needed to tell mountd to accept |
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connections from unprivileged ports (because the emulator does |
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not need to run as root).<pre> |
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# <b>portmap</b> |
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# <b>nfsd -u</b> <--- u for UDP |
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# <b>mountd -n</b> |
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</pre> |
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<li>In the guest OS in the emulator, once you have ethernet and IPv4 |
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configured so that you can use UDP, mounting the filesystem |
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should now be possible: (this example is for NetBSD/pmax |
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or OpenBSD/pmax)<pre> |
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# <b>mount -o ro,-r=1024,-w=1024,-U,-3 my.server.com:/tftpboot /mnt</b> |
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or |
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# <b>mount my.server.com:/tftpboot /mnt</b> |
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</pre> |
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If you don't supply the read and write sizes, there is a risk |
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that the default values are too large. The emulator currently |
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does not handle fragmentation/defragmentation of <i>outgoing</i> |
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packets, so going above the ethernet frame size (1518) is a very |
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bad idea. Incoming packets (reading from nfs) should work, though, |
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for example during an NFS install. |
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</ul> |
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|
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The example above uses read-only mounts. That is enough for things like |
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letting NetBSD/pmax or OpenBSD/pmax install via NFS, without the need for |
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a CDROM ISO image. You can use a read-write mount if you wish to share |
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files in both directions, but then you should be aware of the |
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fragmentation issue mentioned above. |
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|
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<p>TODO: Write a section on how to connect multiple emulator instances. |
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(Using the <tt>local_port</tt> and <tt>add_remote</tt> configuration file |
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commands.) |
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|
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<p><br> |
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<a name="devices"></a> |
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<h3>Emulation of hardware devices</h3> |
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|
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Each file in the <tt>src/device/</tt> directory is responsible for one |
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hardware device. These are used from <tt>src/machine.c</tt>, when |
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initializing which hardware a particular machine model will be using, or |
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when adding devices to a machine using the <tt>device()</tt> command in |
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configuration files. |
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|
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<p><font color="#ff0000">NOTE: The device registry subsystem is currently |
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in a state of flux, as it is being redesigned.</font> |
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|
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<p>(I'll be using the name "<tt>foo</tt>" as the name of the device in all |
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these examples. This is pseudo code, it might need some modification to |
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actually compile and run.) |
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|
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<p>Each device should have the following: |
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|
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<p> |
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<ul> |
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<li>A <tt>devinit</tt> function in <tt>src/devices/dev_foo.c</tt>. It |
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would typically look something like this: |
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<pre> |
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/* |
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* devinit_foo(): |
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*/ |
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int devinit_foo(struct devinit *devinit) |
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{ |
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struct foo_data *d = malloc(sizeof(struct foo_data)); |
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|
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if (d == NULL) { |
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fprintf(stderr, "out of memory\n"); |
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exit(1); |
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} |
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memset(d, 0, sizeof(struct foon_data)); |
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|
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/* |
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* Set up stuff here, for example fill d with useful |
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* data. devinit contains settings like address, irq_nr, |
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* and other things. |
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* |
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* ... |
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*/ |
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|
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memory_device_register(devinit->machine->memory, devinit->name, |
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devinit->addr, DEV_FOO_LENGTH, |
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dev_foo_access, (void *)d, MEM_DEFAULT, NULL); |
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|
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/* This should only be here if the device |
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has a tick function: */ |
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machine_add_tickfunction(machine, dev_foo_tick, d, |
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FOO_TICKSHIFT); |
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|
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/* Return 1 if the device was successfully added. */ |
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return 1; |
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} |
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</pre><br> |
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|
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<li>At the top of <tt>dev_foo.c</tt>, the <tt>foo_data</tt> struct |
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should be defined. |
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<pre> |
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struct foo_data { |
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int irq_nr; |
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/* ... */ |
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} |
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</pre><br> |
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|
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<li>If <tt>foo</tt> has a tick function (that is, something that needs to be |
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run at regular intervals) then <tt>FOO_TICKSHIFT</tt> and a tick |
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function need to be defined as well: |
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<pre> |
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#define FOO_TICKSHIFT 10 |
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|
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void dev_foo_tick(struct cpu *cpu, void *extra) |
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{ |
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struct foo_data *d = (struct foo_data *) extra; |
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|
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if (.....) |
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cpu_interrupt(cpu, d->irq_nr); |
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else |
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cpu_interrupt_ack(cpu, d->irq_nr); |
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} |
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</pre><br> |
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|
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<li>And last but not least, the device should have an access function. |
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The access function is called whenever there is a load or store |
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to an address which is in the device' memory mapped region. |
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<pre> |
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int dev_foo_access(struct cpu *cpu, struct memory *mem, |
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uint64_t relative_addr, unsigned char *data, size_t len, |
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int writeflag, void *extra) |
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{ |
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struct foo_data *d = extra; |
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uint64_t idata = 0, odata = 0; |
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|
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idata = memory_readmax64(cpu, data, len); |
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switch (relative_addr) { |
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/* .... */ |
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} |
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|
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if (writeflag == MEM_READ) |
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memory_writemax64(cpu, data, len, odata); |
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|
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/* Perhaps interrupts need to be asserted or |
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deasserted: */ |
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dev_foo_tick(cpu, extra); |
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|
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/* Return successfully. */ |
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return 1; |
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} |
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</pre><br> |
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</ul> |
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|
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<p> |
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The return value of the access function has until 2004-07-02 been a |
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true/false value; 1 for success, or 0 for device access failure. A device |
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access failure (on MIPS) will result in a DBE exception. |
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|
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<p> |
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Some devices are converted to support arbitrary memory latency |
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values. The return value is the number of cycles that the read or |
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write access took. A value of 1 means one cycle, a value of 10 means 10 |
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cycles. Negative values are used for device access failures, and the |
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absolute value of the value is then the number of cycles; a value of -5 |
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means that the access failed, and took 5 cycles. |
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|
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<p> |
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To be compatible with pre-20040702 devices, a return value of 0 is treated |
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by the caller (in <tt>src/memory_rw.c</tt>) as a value of -1. |
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</body> |
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