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README FILE FOR SPIM, XSPIM, and PCSPIM

This directory contains SPIM--an assembly language MIPS R2000/R3000 simulator.

SPIM is copyrighted by James R. Larus and distributed under the following conditions:

You may make copies of SPIM for your own use and modify those copies.

All copies of SPIM must retain my name and copyright notice.

You may not sell SPIM or distribute SPIM in conjunction with a commercial product or service without the expressed written consent of James Larus.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED ``AS IS'' AND WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

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BUILDING SPIM

These instructions explain how to compile and install spim and xspim.

It is not necessary to compile PCSpim (the Microsoft Windows version), as the spim web site contains a precompiled version.

To build spim (the terminal version) or xspim (the X-windows and Mac version):

1. Change to the directory "spim" to build spim. Change to the directory "xspim" to build xspim
2. If necessary, edit the first few non-comment lines of the Makefile (or the Imakefile if you are building xspim) to set the pathnames for your system:

        EXCEPTION_DIR -- The full pathname of the directory in which to
                         install the SPIM exception handler.

        BIN_DIR -- The full pathname of the directory in which spim and
                   xspim should be installed.

        MAN_DIR -- The full pathname of the directory in which the manual
                   pages for spim and xspim should be installed.

In general, the remaining parameters need not be changed.

3. If you are building spim type:

% make

4. If you are building xspim, type:

        % xmkmf
        % make

5. To run spim or xspim, the exception handler code must be installed in the directory specified by the variable EXCEPTION_DIR in the Makefile. If the file "exceptions."s is not installed, spim and xspim fail with a message before they start running. You can either install this file by hand or by typing

% make install

which also installs spim, xspim, and the manual pages in the directories that you set (above).

6. To test that spim builds correctly, in the "spim" directory type

% make test

and examine the output of the test. (Note: the exception handler must be installed before running the test.)

BUILDING SPIM ON MICROSOFT WINDOWS

spim (the terminal version) works well on Microsoft Windows. You can easily build it using the Cygwin port of the GNU tools (see www.cygwin.com).

The Microsoft Windows version of spim is called PCSpim and is built using Microsoft Visual Studio. You can get the files separately from www.cs.wisc.edu/~larus/spim.html

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NEW VERSIONS OF SPIM

I generally release new version of SPIM once a year, before a semester boundary (late August or early January). The new version are available on:

www.cs.wisc.edu/~larus/spim.html

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This directory contains several files and subdirectories:

README This file.

VERSION

Version number of system.

ChangeLog

Record of changes to spim code.

Documentation/TeX

TeX document that describes SPIM.

Documentation/H_P_AppendixA

Copy of Appendix A from Hennessey & Patterson's book "Computer Organization and Design". This more up-to-date than the TeX documentation.

PCSpim

Microsoft Windows interface to SPIM

Setup

Installer code for PCSpim.

spim

Terminal interfaces to spim (Microsoft Windows, Unix, and Mac).

Tests

Subdirectory contain torture tests to verify that SPIM works.

xspim

X-Windows interface to spim (Unix and Mac).

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WHAT ABOUT SPIM ON SYSTEM XYZ?

SPIM should run without many changes on many Unix systems. Obviously, I have not tested SPIM on many system, nor can I port SPIM to systems that I don't have. However, I would like to hear about the changes necessary to run SPIM on your favorite system.

James Larus
Microsoft Research
(larus@microsoft.com)