Propeller emulator

Alex.Stanfield

Hi There, in looking for a propeller emulator I found GEAR and pPropellerSim. I'd like a vote for which are the pros and cons of them (or any other simulator not a debugger since I need to do some work without having any HW around)

Also I couldn't find any docs on GEAR, can someone post a pointer (or the docs)

Best regards and thansk in advance
Alex

Dave Hein

Alex,

If you are just working with spin code you could use the spin simulator that I developed. It is posted in the thread at http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?127976-Spin-Simulator . It contains an executable that runs in a DOS window under Windows. The source code is included, and it can be compiled to run on linux also

I have been working for the past week on adding PASM support to spinsim. It only took me a couple of days to write the basic PASM simulator, but it's taken me the rest of the week to get the C and Z flags correct for each instruction. I should be posting a new version of spinsim with PASM support in a few days.

There is a discussion thread on GEAR somewhere. You can locate it on the Parallax wiki page. GEAR is a cycle-accurate simulator. I believe it supports stimulus files for the pin I/O. It does contain a spin interpreter, which is not cycle-accurate and allows for faster execution.

Dave

Alex.Stanfield

Dave, I need PASM emulation too so I'll wait for your update!

Also I found GEAR to be rather unclear in it's execution (difference between the cursor and the stated PC line, can't see the variables if there are beyond the 80 lines window, etc) maybe it's my ignorance or maybe it doesn't run ok under Windows 7 64bit.

How about a source level debugger without any HW required? Is there anyone around?

Alex

Dave Hein

I should have a new update of spinsim with PASM by Friday night or Saturday. I've tested most of the instructions against the consise truth tables given in the Prop manual. I've also generated 32,000 random instructions and verified them against the hardware. There are a few instructions where the C and Z flags don't quite match up, such as the JMP/CALL/RET/JMPRET instruction and the MOVS, MOVD and MOVI instructions. The C and Z flags aren't normally written when using these instructions, so it shouldn't be a problem.

I've run the Spin interpreter from ROM under the PASM simulator, and I haven't seen any problems. It is quite a bit slower than using the Spin simulator's interpreter. I don't have source level debugging, but the simulator can print out the mnemonics of the spin or PASM opodes that are executed. I'll add more debugging features in the future.

Dave

jazzed

I have a spin source level debugger which uses the command line that can be integrated, but don't have much time for it just now. SPUD source is here. There are several PASM debuggers, and I have one that uses command line and allows for multi-cog debugging. BMAD source is here. I never got around to integrating the tools. YMMV.

Dave Hein

I posted a new version of SpinSim at http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?127976-Spin-Simulator . The latest version is available from the first post in that thread. This version supports PASM in addition to Spin.

__red__

Alex.Stanfield wrote: »

Also I found GEAR to be rather unclear in it's execution (difference between the cursor and the stated PC line, can't see the variables if there are beyond the 80 lines window, etc) maybe it's my ignorance or maybe it doesn't run ok under Windows 7 64bit.

In the UI there is a button labelled "Follow PC" - that forces the UI to display the currently running instruction. As such, it stops you scrolling around. Click to disable that and you can navigate at will.

Alex.Stanfield

Thanks red, I'll try that with a program whenever I get the chance.

Regards, Alex

pilot0315

@"Dave Hein" said:
I posted a new version of SpinSim at http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?127976-Spin-Simulator . The latest version is available from the first post in that thread. This version supports PASM in addition to Spin.

@"Dave Hein"

The link is dead. Is there a new one. Also I attempted to install what I think is your program from:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/gear-emu/
Installationerrror is Net Framework 3.5(includes Net 2.0 and 3.0

I am running windows 11 pro.

I get an error saying access is denied error code 0x80070005

The link on the error page leads to here:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/windows-client/application-management/dotnet-framework-35-installation-error#resolution-for-windows-10

The error is not listed anywhere on this page and it's associated pages that I could find.

I get the same error when attempting to install the propscope.

yeti

@pilot0315 said:
The link is dead. Is there a new one. Also I attempted to install what I think is your program from:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/gear-emu/
Installationerrror is Net Framework 3.5(includes Net 2.0 and 3.0

"Last Update: 2015-07-13"?

Check out this thread:

https://forums.parallax.com/discussion/156347/improved-gear-emulator

RossH

Dave Hein passed on last year. I still maintain his P2ASM program (it is released as part of Catalina) but not his Spin simulator.

Ross.

pilot0315

@RossH

Thank you for the sad news. It has been a bad year for me with many passing on including my mother.
Please send my feelings to all concerned.
Thank you.

Genetix

pilot0315,

The Forum has gone through several updates so many of the old links don't work anymore.

Here is that thread if you are interested.
https://forums.parallax.com/discussion/127976/spin-simulator