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Release notes for Gavare's eXperimental Emulator (GXemul), 0.3.7 |
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================================================================ |
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Copyright (C) 2003-2005 Anders Gavare. |
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GXemul is an experimental instruction-level machine emulator. Several |
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emulation modes are available. In some modes, processors and surrounding |
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hardware components are emulated well enough to let unmodified operating |
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systems (e.g. NetBSD) run as if they were running on a real machine. |
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|
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MIPS processors are emulated using either a simple binary translation |
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layer ("recompilation"), which is used on Alpha and i386 hosts, or by |
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traditional interpretation (very very slow, but works on any host platform). |
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|
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ARM and PowerPC processors are emulated using a newer dynamic translation |
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system. Performance is somewhere between traditional interpretation and |
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dynamic recompilation; however, the dynamic translation system used in |
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GXemul does NOT require platform-specific back-end code. In plain English, |
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this means that the dyntrans system works on any host platform. |
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I have verified that the following "guest" operating systems can run inside |
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the emulator. Instructions on how to install and run these can be found in |
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the documentation. |
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Guest operating system Emulated machine |
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---------------------- ---------------- |
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NetBSD/pmax 2.1 (and 1.6.2) DECstation 5000/200 |
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OpenBSD/pmax 2.8-BETA DECstation 5000/200 |
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Ultrix 4.2-4.5 DECstation 5000/200 |
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Sprite demo harddisk image DECstation 5000/200 |
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Debian GNU/Linux for DECstation DECstation 5000/200 |
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Redhat Linux 7.1 for mips DECstation 5000/200 |
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NetBSD/arc 1.6.2 Acer PICA-61 |
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OpenBSD/arc 2.3 Acer PICA-61 |
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NetBSD/hpcmips 2.1 NEC MobilePro 770, 780, 800, 880 |
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NetBSD/cobalt 2.1 Cobalt |
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NetBSD/evbmips 2.1 Malta 5Kc/4Kc evaluation board |
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NetBSD/sgimips 2.1 SGI O2 ("IP32") |
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NetBSD/cats 2.1 CATS (ARM) |
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OpenBSD/cats 3.8 CATS (ARM) |
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NetBSD/prep 2.1 PReP (PowerPC Reference Platform) |
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Some of these guest operating systems are easier to install and run than |
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others. The best supported guest operating systems are probably NetBSD/pmax, |
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NetBSD/cats and OpenBSD/cats. |
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The emulator can also be used in other experiments; it does not have to run |
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entire guest operating systems. However, as GXemul is an instruction-level |
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emulator, it does not simulate things smaller than an instruction. What this |
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means is that pipe-line stalls, penalties caused by branch-prediction misses |
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or cache misses, and other micro-architectural effects are not simulated. |
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User-visible change between release 0.3.6.2 and 0.3.7 include: |
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o) The experimental PowerPC emulation mode is now working well enough |
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to allow NetBSD/prep 2.1 to be installed and run inside the emulator. |
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It is not 100% stable, and it is not optimized for performance yet, |
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but hopefully enough for simple experiments. |
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o) I finally took the time to implement a DEC 21143 NIC; this brings |
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network connectivity to NetBSD/cats. (The userland "NAT"-like |
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networking layer is still a bit buggy, and does not work with |
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everything. However, NetBSD/cats can now be installed via ftp.) |
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o) CD-ROM images can now in some cases be detected as ATAPI CD-ROMs |
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instead of IDE harddisks. It works for at least NetBSD, OpenBSD, |
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and Linux on CATS, and NetBSD on hpcmips. |
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Internal (code related) changes include: |
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o) Cleanup of the PCI and ISA bus frameworks; in practice this means |
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that more code can be shared between different emulated machine |
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models than before, and that adding new machine types will become |
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easier. |
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o) Dyntrans updates; 32-bit PowerPC mostly, but also many performance |
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related updates for ARM. |
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There have also been lots of other changes, too many and small to mention here. |
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Files included in this release are: |
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|
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BUGS A list of known bugs. |
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HISTORY Detailed revision history / changelog. |
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LICENSE Copyright message / license. |
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README Quick start instructions, for the impatient. |
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RELEASE This file. |
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TODO TODO notes. |
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configure, Makefile.skel sh and make scripts for building GXemul. |
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doc Documentation. |
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experiments Experimental code. (Usually not needed.) |
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src Source code. |
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To build the emulator, run the ./configure script, and then run make. |
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Building the emulator should work on most Unix-like systems. (One system which |
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is specifically known to NOT work is Ultrix/RISC inside the emulator; Ultrix |
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chokes on the configure script and the default cc in Ultrix doesn't work.) |
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Regarding files in the src/include/ directory: only some of these are written |
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by me, the rest are from other sources (such as NetBSD). The license text says |
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that "All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software" |
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must display acknowledgements. Even though I do NOT feel I mention features or |
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use of the header files (the "software") in any advertising materials, I am |
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still very grateful for the fact that these people have made their files |
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available for re-use, so regardless of legal requirements, I guess thanking |
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them like this is in order: |
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This product includes software developed by the University of |
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California, Berkeley and its contributors. |
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This product includes software developed for the |
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NetBSD Project. See http://www.netbsd.org/ for |
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information about NetBSD. |
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This product includes software developed by Jonathan Stone for |
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the NetBSD Project. |
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This product includes software developed for the NetBSD Project |
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by Matthias Drochner. |
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This product includes software developed by the NetBSD |
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Foundation, Inc. and its contributors. |
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This product includes software developed by Christopher G. Demetriou. |
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[for the NetBSD Project.] |
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This product includes software developed by Adam Glass. |
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This product includes software developed by the PocketBSD project |
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and its contributors. |
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This product includes software developed by Peter Galbavy. |
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Carnegie Mellon University (multiple header files, |
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no specific advertisement text required) |
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This product includes software developed by Charles M. Hannum. |
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This product includes software developed under OpenBSD by Per Fogelström. |
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This product includes software developed by Per Fogelström. |
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This product includes software developed at Ludd, University of |
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Luleå, Sweden and its contributors. |
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This product includes software developed by Hellmuth Michaelis |
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and Joerg Wunsch |
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The font(s) in devices/fonts are Copyright (c) 1992, 1993, 1994 |
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by Hellmuth Michaelis and Joerg Wunsch. ("This product includes software |
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developed by Hellmuth Michaelis and Joerg Wunsch", well, the font |
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is maybe not software, but still...) |
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impactsr-bsd.h is Copyright (C) 2004 by Stanislaw Skowronek. |
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This product includes software developed for the NetBSD Project by |
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Wasabi Systems, Inc. [by Simon Burge] |
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arcbios_other.h is Copyright (c) 1996 M. Warner Losh. |
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This product includes software developed by Marc Horowitz. |
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This product includes software developed by Brini. |
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This product includes software developed by Mark Brinicombe |
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for the NetBSD Project. |
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This product includes software developed by TooLs GmbH. |
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This product includes software developed by Manuel Bouyer. |
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Also, src/include/alpha_rpb.h requires the following: |
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Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 Carnegie-Mellon University. |
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All rights reserved. |
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Author: Keith Bostic, Chris G. Demetriou |
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Permission to use, copy, modify and distribute this software and |
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its documentation is hereby granted, provided that both the copyright |
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notice and this permission notice appear in all copies of the |
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software, derivative works or modified versions, and any portions |
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thereof, and that both notices appear in supporting documentation. |
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See individual files for license details, if you plan to redistribute GXemul |
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or reuse code. |
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Thanks to (in no specific order) Joachim Buss, Juli Mallett, Juan Romero |
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Pardines, Alec Voropay, Göran Weinholt, Alexander Yurchenko, and everyone |
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else who has provided me with feedback. |
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If you have found GXemul useful in some way, or feel like sending me comments |
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or feedback in general, then mail me at anders(at)gavare.se. |
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