--- trunk/RELEASE 2007/10/08 16:18:19 8 +++ trunk/RELEASE 2007/10/08 16:21:17 34 @@ -1,73 +1,72 @@ -Release notes for GXemul 0.3.3.2 -================================ +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 (among others) MIPS-based machines. Several -emulation modes are available. For some emulation modes, processors and -surrounding hardware components are emulated well enough to let unmodified -operating systems run as if they were running on a real machine. - -I have verified that the following "guest" operating systems can run -inside the emulator: - - Guest operating system Emulated machine - ---------------------- ---------------- - NetBSD/pmax 2.0 (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 NEC MobilePro 770, 780, 800, 880 - NetBSD/cobalt 2.0 Cobalt - -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. It is important to remember, though, -that GXemul does not simulate things smaller than an instruction; this -means that pipe-line stalls, penalties caused by branch-prediction misses, -and other effects are not simulated. - -Summary of changes between release 0.3.2 and 0.3.3.2: - - x) When booting from an ISO9660 (CDROM) filesystem image, the kernel - can now in some cases be read directly from the image, so there is - no need any longer to supply an external kernel. (It is a quick, - buggy, and very ugly hack, but it sometimes works.) - - x) Mixing more than one disk image type (SCSI, IDE, PC-style floppy) - within one emulated machine is now possible. (There is however no - stable emulation mode yet that uses this.) +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. + + +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). + +Please read the HISTORY files for more details. - x) Many minor updates and bugfixes. 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. - tests Regression tests. -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 @@ -133,10 +132,37 @@ 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. -Thanks to everyone 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.