Developing a new simulator

[Harshad R Joglekar]

Hi all,

I want to write a simulator for a processor. I want to
develop both a GDB embedded simulator and a stand alone version. I had a
glance at the available options, but was unable to decide on the best
approach. The options seem to be,

1. Develop the simulator from scratch
All features have to be implemented manually, with a little help from
sim/common/.

2. Use cgen
Cgen provides a lot of options (for the simulator), and documentation.
The approach is also very formal (it uses a RTL like language). But as
of now, not many ports seem to be using it. I am not sure if cgen would
support various kinds of instructions, registers, etc. I also don't know
of it's reliability (since it is in version 1.0).
A compromise could be to use cgen generated code as a template, and
tailor it as required. Is this feasible?

3. Use igen or sid
I could not find any documentation on igen and sid is not yet released.
Reliability is
still a concern as in cgen.

What option would you recommend?

Thanks for any help,
Harshad