--- trunk/RELEASE 2007/10/08 16:18:38 12 +++ trunk/RELEASE 2007/10/08 16:21:17 34 @@ -1,83 +1,72 @@ -Release notes for Gavare's eXperimental Emulator (GXemul), 0.3.5 +Release notes for Gavare's eXperimental Emulator (GXemul), 0.4.4 ================================================================ -Copyright (C) 2003-2005 Anders Gavare. +Copyright (C) 2003-2007 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.) - -I have verified that the following "guest" operating systems can run inside -the emulator: - - Guest operating system Emulated machine - ---------------------- ---------------- - NetBSD/pmax 2.0.2 (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 2.0.2 NEC MobilePro 770, 780, 800, 880 - NetBSD/cobalt 2.0.2 Cobalt - NetBSD/evbmips 2.0.2 Malta 5Kc/4Kc evaluation board - NetBSD/sgimips 2.0.2 SGI O2 ("IP32") - -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. - -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 -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.) - -The user-visible changes between release 0.3.4 and 0.3.5 are minor, and -can be summarized as follows: - - o) Updates to the (old) binary translation subsystem, resulting - in minor speed improvements. +Processors (ARM, MIPS, PowerPC, SuperH) are emulated using dynamic +translation. Unlike some other dynamically translating emulators, GXemul +does not need to generate native code, only a "runnable intermediate +representation", and will thus run on any host architecture. + +The documentation lists the machines and guest operating systems that can +be regarded as "working" in GXemul. The best working guest operating +systems are probably NetBSD/pmax and NetBSD/cats. + + +Changes between release 0.4.3 and 0.4.4 include, among other things: + + o) The interrupt subsystem has been redesigned. This means two things: + + x) Internal code cleanup, which makes the whole emulator more + maintainable. Instead of using magically encoded integers + for interrupts, strings are now used. These strings are in + the form of "paths", so that devices and busses can more + easily be connected to other busses, devices, or CPUs. + + x) Some machine types which happened to work in release 0.4.3, + but were not listed in the documentation as working, may + have stopped working now. As always, the documentation should + indicate the combinations of machine modes and guest OSes that + are supposed to work. + + o) SuperH (SH4) emulation is now somewhat more stable, enough to let a + NetBSD/dreamcast Live CD be usable. + + o) PowerPC "G4" emulation is now stable enough to let NetBSD/macppc + run from a disk image. (Installing actually worked before, but the + NetBSD/macppc GENERIC kernel uses AltiVec instructions which were + not implemented correctly.) + + o) The PICA-61 (arc) and i80321 (evbarm) emulation modes now have their + timers fixed at 100 Hz. A hardcoded speed like this is very ugly, but + it is at least better than before (when the timer wasn't really + running at any specific speed at all). - o) 64-bit MIPS dmult/dmultu has been fixed. +Please read the HISTORY files for more details. - o) slt* instructions for 64-bit MIPS were incorrectly implemented - in the i386 backend. This has been fixed. - -There have been many other bug fixes and updates, most of which are not -visible. 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 @@ -143,6 +132,21 @@ 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. + + This product includes software developed by TooLs GmbH. + + 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. + + This product includes software developed by Marcus Comstedt. + Also, src/include/alpha_rpb.h requires the following: Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 Carnegie-Mellon University. @@ -156,13 +160,9 @@ 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. 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.