Re: [Simulavr-devel] simulavrxx features / another simulator

[E. Weddington]

James Kehl wrote:

> Hi all,
> As part of a university project I developed an AVR simulator with hardware
> (UART etc) support. Unfortunately I now discover simulavrxx also has
> introduced hardware support, which is a small obstacle to gathering a
> userbase :)
>
> Can anyone tell me exactly what simulavrxx does/supports?
> - How fast is it?
> - Does it run on Windows? What other platforms?
>  
AFAIK, it hasn't been built on Windows yet.

> - How does its hardware support work - must all devices hang off a central
>  CPU or does it support complex nestings & multiple CPUs?
> - Why on earth isn't it in WinAVR yet? :)
>
>  
Several reasons:
1. Timing. WinAVR usually has a few months between releases.
2. WinAVR is usually built with stable releases, i.e. released tarballs. 
It has been a bit unclear (to me anyway) how stable the new source has been.
3. Communication issues. I only recently discovered that Ted (original 
simulavr admin) handed over the reins completely to Bill and Klaus. Bill 
only recently knew about WinAVR. I have yet to mention to them about 
"naming issues".
4. And trying to decide what to put in it. There's another simulator 
that looks ineresting, Avrora: <http://compilers.cs.ucla.edu/avrora/>. 
It's written in Java, which presents a bit of a challenge. One can use 
GCJ (the Java compiler part of GCC) to compile it to native machine 
code, getting around the JVM requirement. However, there were additional 
build issues (I can't recall offhand). So Avrora, as it currently 
stands, can't be built as an executable for Windows. Obviously if you 
have a JVM you can run it. Plus Avrora is still fairly new and is 
getting bugs worked out, and has other features missing.

> As for my simulator: If there is anyone interested, you can look at the
> (somewhat droolproofed) Windows binaries (or screenshots thereof) off a
> course which uses it:
> http://www.itee.uq.edu.au/~comp1300/project/
> (look under Simulator or Simulator Documentation)
>
>  
I'll take a look. Thanks!

> Naturally there is also source for those of us who dislike Windows and
> binaries. (i.e. Linux works.) I'm happy to GPL it if anyone wants that
> (and my supervisor doesn't flag any IP issues):
> http://shykta.dione.cc/ess-src-3_1.zip
>
>  

That might be something to think about doing. Also, make sure that the 
source can be accessed publically and have a persistent repository where 
it can be maintained, such as on SourceForge or Savannah.

Eric