Hi Ralph, thanks for your answer! I'm really happy to receive such a quick response.
Yes, Pearcolator instruments a JVM to perform Dynamic Binary Translation. For ARM, I translate the ARM instructions into a stream of Pearcolator's intermediate instruction format and then, those intermediate instructions are compiled to machine code for the host platform. Currently, Pearcolator simulates a linux environment by intercepting system calls and handling these, as if the binary was running on linux. However, I would like to extend that research project so that Pearcolator can also simulate enough hardware, to actually boot a simple operating system instead of "only" intercepting the system calls. Currently, I am simulating all ARM instructions, but no additional hardware at all. Therefore, I was wondering what kind of hardware I would actually have to simulate to get a basic linux running - is simulating a memory mapped serial interface enough or do I also need a DMA controller, HD controller or ...? The reason I was asking here is that you seem to be experts on simulating hardware, considering arcem is able to emulate quite a lot. I knew about QEMU, but until know I though they would also only intercept the system calls - but according to your interesting links, they also seem to be able to simulate a bit of hardware, too. On your homepage, you are also offering an ARMLinux ROM image (http://arcem.sourceforge.net/linuxrom.zip). Do you know what kind of hardware emulation is required to run this image? Bye, Michael -------- Original-Nachricht -------- Datum: Fri, 11 May 2007 14:47:05 +0100 Von: Ralph Corderoy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> An: "Michael Baer" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> CC: arcem-devel@lists.sourceforge.net Betreff: Re: Minimum hardware emulation needed to boot a OS on ARM? > > Hi Michael, > > > I am a student at the University of Manchester and as part of a > > project, I am extending the Java Dynamic Binary Translator Pearcolator > > (pearcolator.sourceforge.net) to support the ARM instruction set. > > Sorry to start my first posting to your list with a question, but it > > would be really nice if any of you could give me a hint on the > > following topic: > > > > I am very impressed with the work that you have done on Arcem. Though > > Pearcolator is not targetted to perform full system emulation, I would > > really like to look into that topic a little bit. Therefore, I was > > wondering what the minimal necessary hardware emulation is to run an > > ARM-based operating system like ARMLinux or RiscOS. I am currently > > emulating ARM's Angel Debug Monitor SWI commands, but there's probably > > much more hardware emulation is needed? > > RISC OS does need much more, and a lot of it these days isn't useful to > anything but RISC OS. I'd recommend going for Linux/ARM or a BSD as I > believe these require a lot less hardware to be emulated in order to get > a kernel going talking to a "serial" console. > > > It would be really nice, if you could give me a hint about where to > > start emulating software, possibly just to get a console of some kind > > running? > > I don't quite understand what pearcolator is. Is it a framework for > writing a dynamic binary translator in? And you're using it to take ARM > machine instructions, turn them into JVM instructions, and then run > them, emulating whatever surrounding system they expect? > > Have you looked a Qemu? That may be a better thing to study than arcem. > In particular, see what cut-down minimal OSes they run. Various people > have written about running ARM Linux on Qemu. > > http://909ers.apl.washington.edu/~dushaw/ARM/ > http://nepotismia.com/linux/qemu/arm/ > http://www.aurel32.net/info/debian_arm_qemu.php > > Feel free to come back with other questions. The people lurking on the > list cover quite a wide variety of areas. > > Cheers, > > > Ralph. -- Ist Ihr Browser Vista-kompatibel? Jetzt die neuesten Browser-Versionen downloaden: http://www.gmx.net/de/go/browser ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This SF.net email is sponsored by DB2 Express Download DB2 Express C - the FREE version of DB2 express and take control of your XML. No limits. Just data. Click to get it now. http://sourceforge.net/powerbar/db2/ _______________________________________________ arcem-devel mailing list arcem-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/arcem-devel
