I just thought I'd let everyone know about a software tool that could
come in extremely handy during initial development. The program is
called spim (or xspim) and is a MIPS R3k CPU simulator. The program
compiles under Linux with a bit of fiddling, and seems to perform
pretty well.
There are a couple of different versions of the program in the source
distribution:
spim: assembly-level simulator (text mode)
xspim: assembly-level simulator (runs under X)
cl-spim: cycle-level simulator (text mode)
cl-xspim: cycle-level simulator (runs under X)
I haven't looked at either of the cycle-level simulators yet, but I'd
have to assume they worked ok. There are a few BSDisms in the code that
can be fixed by modifying some #include <whatever.h> to the appropriate
#include <bsd/whatever.h> and by linking with -lbsd.
I don't actually remember where the source is archived, but I think
archie can find it ok. If there's a need for it, I guess I can put
my binaries up somewhere, but I hope we're all capable of "compiling
our own" <grin>. I probably will put the patches I did up somewhere
when I get around to it.
Anyhow, I think it could be quite a useful tool...
Pat -- "There's only one thing left to do Mama, I got to ding a ding dang
my dang a long ling long" (Jesus Built My Hotrod -- Ministry)
GCS d* -p+ c++ l++ m--- s+/- !g w- t- r
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