--- trunk/RELEASE 2007/10/08 16:19:23 20 +++ trunk/RELEASE 2007/10/08 16:21:53 38 @@ -1,7 +1,7 @@ -Release notes for Gavare's eXperimental Emulator (GXemul), 0.3.7 +Release notes for Gavare's eXperimental Emulator (GXemul), 0.4.5 ================================================================ -Copyright (C) 2003-2005 Anders Gavare. +Copyright (C) 2003-2007 Anders Gavare. GXemul is an experimental instruction-level machine emulator. Several @@ -9,94 +9,51 @@ hardware components are emulated well enough to let unmodified operating systems (e.g. NetBSD) run as if they were running on a real machine. -MIPS processors are emulated using either a simple binary translation -layer ("recompilation"), which is used on Alpha and i386 hosts, or by -traditional interpretation (very very slow, but works on any host platform). - -ARM and PowerPC processors are emulated using a newer dynamic translation -system. Performance is somewhere between traditional interpretation and -dynamic recompilation; however, the dynamic translation system used in -GXemul does NOT require platform-specific back-end code. In plain English, -this means that the dyntrans system works on any host platform. - -I have verified that the following "guest" operating systems can run inside -the emulator. Instructions on how to install and run these can be found in -the documentation. - - Guest operating system Emulated machine - ---------------------- ---------------- - NetBSD/pmax 2.1 (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 2.1 NEC MobilePro 770, 780, 800, 880 - NetBSD/cobalt 2.1 Cobalt - NetBSD/evbmips 2.1 Malta 5Kc/4Kc evaluation board - NetBSD/sgimips 2.1 SGI O2 ("IP32") - NetBSD/cats 2.1 CATS (ARM) - OpenBSD/cats 3.8 CATS (ARM) - NetBSD/prep 2.1 PReP (PowerPC Reference Platform) - -Some of these guest operating systems are easier to install and run than -others. The best supported guest operating systems are probably NetBSD/pmax, -NetBSD/cats and OpenBSD/cats. - -The emulator can also be used in other experiments; it does not have to run -entire guest operating systems. However, as GXemul is an instruction-level -emulator, it 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. - -User-visible change between release 0.3.6.2 and 0.3.7 include: - - o) The experimental PowerPC emulation mode is now working well enough - to allow NetBSD/prep 2.1 to be installed and run inside the emulator. - It is not 100% stable, and it is not optimized for performance yet, - but hopefully enough for simple experiments. - - o) I finally took the time to implement a DEC 21143 NIC; this brings - network connectivity to NetBSD/cats. (The userland "NAT"-like - networking layer is still a bit buggy, and does not work with - everything. However, NetBSD/cats can now be installed via ftp.) - - o) CD-ROM images can now in some cases be detected as ATAPI CD-ROMs - instead of IDE harddisks. It works for at least NetBSD, OpenBSD, - and Linux on CATS, and NetBSD on hpcmips. - -Internal (code related) changes include: - - o) Cleanup of the PCI and ISA bus frameworks; in practice this means - that more code can be shared between different emulated machine - models than before, and that adding new machine types will become - easier. +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. - o) Dyntrans updates; 32-bit PowerPC mostly, but also many performance - related updates for ARM. +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. -There have also been lots of other changes, too many and small to mention here. 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 @@ -171,6 +128,12 @@ 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. @@ -187,10 +150,7 @@ 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 Romero -Pardines, 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. +or feedback in general, then mail me at anders(At)gavare.se.