upstream/0.4.5/RELEASE

Release notes for Gavare's eXperimental Emulator (GXemul), 0.4.5
================================================================

Copyright (C) 2003-2007  Anders Gavare.


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.

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.


The changes between release 0.4.4.1 and 0.4.5 include, among other things:

    o)  Initial support for "disk overlays" has been implemented. This
        enables e.g. simple roll-back of emulated disk contents to a
        previous state.

    o)  Dyntrans bug fixes; code translations on physical addresses that
        were offset a multiple of 128 MB from each other could either
        cause weird bugs, or translation leaks (leading to unnecessary
        dyntrans cache overflows).

    o)  Some cleanup: The GDB debugging stub support, some dummy machine
        modes (TS7200, Walnut, PB1000, and Meshcube), and some dummy or
        experimental CPUs (RCA180x and Transputer) have been removed, to
        make the emulator slightly more maintainable.

Please read the HISTORY file for more details.


Files included in this release are:

  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. This 
should work on most Unix-like systems.


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
that "All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software"
must display acknowledgements. Even though I do NOT feel I mention features or
use of the header files (the "software") in any advertising materials, I am
still very grateful for the fact that these people have made their files
available for re-use, so regardless of legal requirements, I guess thanking
them like this is in order:

    This product includes software developed by the University of
    California, Berkeley and its contributors.

    This product includes software developed for the
    NetBSD Project.  See http://www.netbsd.org/ for
    information about NetBSD.

    This product includes software developed by Jonathan Stone for
    the NetBSD Project.

    This product includes software developed for the NetBSD Project
    by Matthias Drochner.

    This product includes software developed by the NetBSD
    Foundation, Inc. and its contributors.

    This product includes software developed by Christopher G. Demetriou.
    [for the NetBSD Project.]

    This product includes software developed by Adam Glass.

    This product includes software developed by the PocketBSD project
    and its contributors.

    This product includes software developed by Peter Galbavy.

    Carnegie Mellon University   (multiple header files,
    no specific advertisement text required)

    This product includes software developed by Charles M. Hannum.

    This product includes software developed under OpenBSD by Per Fogelström.

    This product includes software developed by Per Fogelström.

    This product includes software developed at Ludd, University of
    Luleå, Sweden and its contributors.

    This product includes software developed by Hellmuth Michaelis
    and Joerg Wunsch

    The font(s) in devices/fonts are Copyright (c) 1992, 1993, 1994
    by Hellmuth Michaelis and Joerg Wunsch.  ("This product includes software
    developed by Hellmuth Michaelis and Joerg Wunsch", well, the font
    is maybe not software, but still...)

    impactsr-bsd.h is Copyright (C) 2004 by Stanislaw Skowronek.

    This product includes software developed for the NetBSD Project by
    Wasabi Systems, Inc.  [by Simon Burge]

    arcbios_other.h is Copyright (c) 1996 M. Warner Losh.

    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.
    All rights reserved.

    Author: Keith Bostic, Chris G. Demetriou

    Permission to use, copy, modify and distribute this software and
    its documentation is hereby granted, provided that both the copyright
    notice and this permission notice appear in all copies of the
    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.


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.

1	Release notes for Gavare's eXperimental Emulator (GXemul), 0.4.5
2	================================================================
3
4	Copyright (C) 2003-2007 Anders Gavare.
5
6
7	GXemul is an experimental instruction-level machine emulator. Several
8	emulation modes are available. In some modes, processors and surrounding
9	hardware components are emulated well enough to let unmodified operating
10	systems (e.g. NetBSD) run as if they were running on a real machine.
11
12	Processors (ARM, MIPS, PowerPC, SuperH) are emulated using dynamic
13	translation. Unlike some other dynamically translating emulators, GXemul
14	does not need to generate native code, only a "runnable intermediate
15	representation", and will thus run on any host architecture.
16
17	The documentation lists the machines and guest operating systems that can
18	be regarded as "working" in GXemul. The best working guest operating
19	systems are probably NetBSD/pmax and NetBSD/cats.
20
21
22	The changes between release 0.4.4.1 and 0.4.5 include, among other things:
23
24	o) Initial support for "disk overlays" has been implemented. This
25	enables e.g. simple roll-back of emulated disk contents to a
26	previous state.
27
28	o) Dyntrans bug fixes; code translations on physical addresses that
29	were offset a multiple of 128 MB from each other could either
30	cause weird bugs, or translation leaks (leading to unnecessary
31	dyntrans cache overflows).
32
33	o) Some cleanup: The GDB debugging stub support, some dummy machine
34	modes (TS7200, Walnut, PB1000, and Meshcube), and some dummy or
35	experimental CPUs (RCA180x and Transputer) have been removed, to
36	make the emulator slightly more maintainable.
37
38	Please read the HISTORY file for more details.
39
40
41	Files included in this release are:
42
43	HISTORY Detailed revision history / changelog.
44	LICENSE Copyright message / license.
45	README Quick start instructions, for the impatient.
46	RELEASE This file.
47	TODO TODO notes.
48	configure, Makefile.skel sh and make scripts for building GXemul.
49	demos Tutorial-like demos of testmachine functionality.
50	doc Documentation.
51	experiments Experimental code. (Usually not needed.)
52	src Source code.
53
54	To build the emulator, run the configure script, and then run make. This
55	should work on most Unix-like systems.
56
57
58	Regarding files in the src/include/ directory: only some of these are written
59	by me, the rest are from other sources (such as NetBSD). The license text says
60	that "All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software"
61	must display acknowledgements. Even though I do NOT feel I mention features or
62	use of the header files (the "software") in any advertising materials, I am
63	still very grateful for the fact that these people have made their files
64	available for re-use, so regardless of legal requirements, I guess thanking
65	them like this is in order:
66
67	This product includes software developed by the University of
68	California, Berkeley and its contributors.
69
70	This product includes software developed for the
71	NetBSD Project. See http://www.netbsd.org/ for
72	information about NetBSD.
73
74	This product includes software developed by Jonathan Stone for
75	the NetBSD Project.
76
77	This product includes software developed for the NetBSD Project
78	by Matthias Drochner.
79
80	This product includes software developed by the NetBSD
81	Foundation, Inc. and its contributors.
82
83	This product includes software developed by Christopher G. Demetriou.
84	[for the NetBSD Project.]
85
86	This product includes software developed by Adam Glass.
87
88	This product includes software developed by the PocketBSD project
89	and its contributors.
90
91	This product includes software developed by Peter Galbavy.
92
93	Carnegie Mellon University (multiple header files,
94	no specific advertisement text required)
95
96	This product includes software developed by Charles M. Hannum.
97
98	This product includes software developed under OpenBSD by Per Fogelström.
99
100	This product includes software developed by Per Fogelström.
101
102	This product includes software developed at Ludd, University of
103	Luleå, Sweden and its contributors.
104
105	This product includes software developed by Hellmuth Michaelis
106	and Joerg Wunsch
107
108	The font(s) in devices/fonts are Copyright (c) 1992, 1993, 1994
109	by Hellmuth Michaelis and Joerg Wunsch. ("This product includes software
110	developed by Hellmuth Michaelis and Joerg Wunsch", well, the font
111	is maybe not software, but still...)
112
113	impactsr-bsd.h is Copyright (C) 2004 by Stanislaw Skowronek.
114
115	This product includes software developed for the NetBSD Project by
116	Wasabi Systems, Inc. [by Simon Burge]
117
118	arcbios_other.h is Copyright (c) 1996 M. Warner Losh.
119
120	This product includes software developed by Marc Horowitz.
121
122	This product includes software developed by Brini.
123
124	This product includes software developed by Mark Brinicombe
125	for the NetBSD Project.
126
127	This product includes software developed by TooLs GmbH.
128
129	This product includes software developed by Manuel Bouyer.
130
131	This product includes software developed by the Alice Group.
132
133	This product includes software developed by Ichiro FUKUHARA.
134
135	This product includes software developed by Marcus Comstedt.
136
137	Also, src/include/alpha_rpb.h requires the following:
138
139	Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 Carnegie-Mellon University.
140	All rights reserved.
141
142	Author: Keith Bostic, Chris G. Demetriou
143
144	Permission to use, copy, modify and distribute this software and
145	its documentation is hereby granted, provided that both the copyright
146	notice and this permission notice appear in all copies of the
147	software, derivative works or modified versions, and any portions
148	thereof, and that both notices appear in supporting documentation.
149
150	See individual files for license details, if you plan to redistribute GXemul
151	or reuse code.
152
153
154	If you have found GXemul useful in some way, or feel like sending me comments
155	or feedback in general, then mail me at anders(At)gavare.se.
156