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Gavare's eXperimental Emulator -- GXemul 0.4.4.1 |
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==================================================== |
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Copyright (C) 2003-2007 Anders Gavare. |
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Overview -- What is GXemul? |
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----------------------------- |
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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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Processors (ARM, MIPS, PowerPC, SuperH) are emulated using dynamic |
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translation. Unlike some other dynamically translating emulators, GXemul |
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does not need to generate native code, only a "runnable intermediate |
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representation", and will thus run on any host architecture. |
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The documentation lists the machines and guest operating systems that can |
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be regarded as "working" in GXemul. The best working guest operating |
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systems are probably NetBSD/pmax and NetBSD/cats. |
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Possible uses of the emulator include: |
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o) educational purposes, e.g. to learn how to write code for MIPS |
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o) hobby operating system development; the emulator can be used as a |
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complement to testing your code on real hardware |
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o) running guest operating systems in a "sandboxed" environment |
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o) compiling your source code inside a guest operating system which you |
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otherwise would not have access to (e.g. various exotic ports of |
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NetBSD), to make sure that your source code is portable to those |
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platforms |
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o) simulating (ethernet) networks of computers running various |
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operating systems, to study their interaction with each other |
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o) debugging code in general |
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Use your imagination :-) |
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GXemul's limitations |
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-------------------- |
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o) GXemul is not (in general) a cycle-accurate simulator, because it does |
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not simulate things smaller than an instruction. Pipe-line stalls, |
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instruction latency effects etc. are more or less completely ignored. |
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o) Hardware devices have been implemented in an ad-hoc and as-needed |
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manner, usually only enough to fool certain guest operating systems |
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(e.g. NetBSD) that the hardware devices exist and function well |
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enough for those guest operating systems to use them. |
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A consequence of this is that a machine mode may be implemented well |
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enough to run NetBSD for that machine mode, but other guest operating |
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systems may not run at all, or behave strangely. |
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Quick start |
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----------- |
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To compile, type './configure' and then 'make'. This should work on most |
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Unix-like systems. If it does not, then please mail me a bug report. |
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You might want to experiment with various CC and CFLAGS environment |
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variable settings, to get optimum performance. |
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If you are impatient, and want to try out running a guest operating system |
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inside GXemul, read this: doc/guestoses.html#netbsdcatsinstall |
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If you want to use GXemul for experimenting with code of your own, |
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then I suggest you compile a Hello World program according to the tips |
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listed here: doc/experiments.html#hello |
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Please read the rest of the documentation in the doc/ sub-directory for |
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more detailed information on how to use the emulator. |
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Feedback |
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-------- |
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If you have found GXemul useful in some way, or feel like sending me |
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comments or feedback in general, then mail me at anders(at)gavare.se. |
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