PSIM

PSIM - Model of the PowerPC(tm) Architecture

Copyright (C) 1994-1996, Andrew Cagney


PSIM is now bundled with GDB, the GNU debugger.

These pages are provided for reference only.


PSIM is a program written in extended ANSI-C that emulates the Instruction Set Architecture of the PowerPC microprocessor family. It is freely available in source code form under the terms of the GNU General Public License (version 2 or later).

The publication The PowerPC Architecture: A specification for a new family of RISC processors describes the PowerPC Instruction Set Architecture has having three levels of compliance:

  1. UEA - User Instruction Set Architecture

    ``the registers, instructions, storage model, and execution model that are available to all application programs''

  2. VEA - Virtual Environment Architecture

    ``the features of the architecture that permit application programs to create or modify code, to share data among programs in a multiprocessing system, and to optimize the performance of storage accesses''

  3. OEA - Operating Environment Architecture

    ``the features of the architecture that permit operating systems to allocate and manage storage, to handle errors encountered by application programs, to support I/O devices, and to provide the other services expected of secure, modern, multiprocessor operating systems''

PSIM, both implements all three levels of the PowerPC Instruction Set Architecture, and includes, for each level, a number of simulated run-time environments:
  1. UEA

    PSIM can run static programs compiled for any of the following operating systems:

  2. VEA

    Support for environmental features of the Instruction Set Architecture including:

  3. OEA

    Details of the target PowerPC Platform being modeled can be specified including:

In addition, PSIM, to the execution unit level, models the performance of most of the current PowerPC implementations (contributed by Michael Meissner). This detailed performance monitoring (unlike many other simulators) resulting in only a relatively marginal reduction in the simulators performance.

PSIM is now included with the GNU debugger GDB. Source code for the most recent release of GDB is available for downloading from your local Free Software Foundation FTP site. More recent GDB snapshots are also available for down loading, see the GDB web site for details.

Additional information:

Thanks goes firstly to:

who provided the resources needed for making this software available on the Internet.

More importantly I'd like to thank the following individuals who each contributed in their own unique way:

Andrew Cagney, December 1996


Copyright (C) 1994-1996, Andrew Cagney

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.


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PowerPC(tm) is a trademark of International Business Machines Corporation.
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UNIX(R) is the registered trademark of X/Open Company Ltd.


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PSIM - Model of the PowerPC Architecture