--- trunk/RELEASE 2007/10/08 16:18:38 12 +++ trunk/RELEASE 2007/10/08 16:18:51 14 @@ -1,18 +1,16 @@ -Release notes for Gavare's eXperimental Emulator (GXemul), 0.3.5 +Release notes for Gavare's eXperimental Emulator (GXemul), 0.3.6 ================================================================ Copyright (C) 2003-2005 Anders Gavare. -GXemul is an experimental instruction-level machine emulator. It can be used to -run binary code for MIPS-based machines, regardless of host platform. Several -emulation modes are available. For some modes, processors and surrounding +GXemul is an experimental instruction-level machine emulator. Several +emulation modes are available. In some modes, processors and surrounding hardware components are emulated well enough to let unmodified operating systems (e.g. NetBSD) run as if they were running on a real machine. -(Non-MIPS emulation modes are also under development, but so far none of those -modes has reached the completeness required to run unmodified operating -systems.) +The processor architecture best emulated by GXemul is MIPS, but other +architectures are also partially emulated. I have verified that the following "guest" operating systems can run inside the emulator: @@ -31,14 +29,19 @@ NetBSD/cobalt 2.0.2 Cobalt NetBSD/evbmips 2.0.2 Malta 5Kc/4Kc evaluation board NetBSD/sgimips 2.0.2 SGI O2 ("IP32") + NetBSD/cats 2.0.2 CATS (ARM) + OpenBSD/cats 3.7 CATS (ARM) + +(Most of these are MIPS-based machines, except the CATS, which is an +ARM-based machine.) Some of these guest operating systems are easier to install and run than -others. The best supported mode is the DECstation 5000/200 emulation mode, with -NetBSD/pmax as the guest operating system. +others. The best supported mode is the DECstation 5000/200 emulation mode, +with NetBSD/pmax as the guest operating system. -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. +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. (However, GXemul does not simulate things @@ -46,19 +49,21 @@ penalties caused by branch-prediction misses or cache misses, and other micro-architectural effects are not simulated.) -The user-visible changes between release 0.3.4 and 0.3.5 are minor, and -can be summarized as follows: +The most imporant user-visible change between release 0.3.5 and 0.3.6 is: + + (X) The experimental ARM emulation mode is now working well enough + to install NetBSD/cats and OpenBSD/cats onto harddisk images. - o) Updates to the (old) binary translation subsystem, resulting - in minor speed improvements. +There are two minor issues with the ARM emulation: - o) 64-bit MIPS dmult/dmultu has been fixed. + 1) A bug is triggered at the end of the OpenBSD/cats installation, + so the MAKEDEV script must be run manually before booting for + the first time. - o) slt* instructions for 64-bit MIPS were incorrectly implemented - in the i386 backend. This has been fixed. + 2) I have not had time to do any performance optimizations yet, so + the ARM emulation mode is not very fast. -There have been many other bug fixes and updates, most of which are not -visible. +There have also been lots of other small changes, too small to mention here. Files included in this release are: @@ -143,6 +148,11 @@ This product includes software developed by Marc Horowitz. + This product includes software developed by Brini. + + This product includes software developed by Mark Brinicombe + for the NetBSD Project. + Also, src/include/alpha_rpb.h requires the following: Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 Carnegie-Mellon University. @@ -156,13 +166,12 @@ software, derivative works or modified versions, and any portions thereof, and that both notices appear in supporting documentation. - 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 RP, Alec -Voropay, Göran Weinholt, Alexander Yurchenko, and everyone else who has -provided me with feedback. +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. 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.