NeXTspim User Documentation

This document contains just brief summaries of what each menu item does.  For simulation documentation, see the spim.ps file.

To change a register value, select its text field, edit it, and press return.

Info/Preferences:
Bare Machine:	Instructions marked in spim.ps are not supported.  Only "real" MIPS instructions will be interpreted.
Load Default Trap Handler:	Load some default kernel code to handle exceptions.
Print GPRs in hex:	Print the general registers (R1...R31) in hex instead of decimal.
Print FPRs in hex:	Print the floating point registers in hex instead of decimal.
Memory-mapped I/O:	Enable a section of memory that reflects keyboard events.  See spim.ps for details.  (WARNING: This feature has not been thouroughly tested and may not actually be functional.)
Instruction Cache:	Enable the instruction cache.
Data Cache:	Enable the data cache.
TLB:		Enable the Transfer Lookaside Buffer simulation.
Cycle Level:	Enable cycle-level simulation.
Update display every xxx second.  Changes how often the Messages window, Registers window, and Text Segments window will be updated.  May range from 0.1 sec to 1.0 sec.

Program/Load:
Load a MIPS assembly file.  The file must have a .s extension.

Program/Run (Stop):
Start/Stop the program.  Also clears the input queue, but does not reset the registers.

Program/Step:
Run the program one step.

Program/Clear Registers:
Reset all registers, including the program counter.

Program/Clear All:
Reset the simulation.  The registers will be cleared and the program will be erased.

Program/Breakpoints:
To add a breakpoint, type the address (with the leading 0x if hexadecimal) and press enter or click on "Add New".
To remove a breakpoint, type in its address and press "Remove", or press "Remove All" to clear all breakpoints.

View/Memory		Main NeXTspim window, shows registers, code, and data.
View/Messages		"Console" for input/output and error messages.
View/Pipeline		Cycle-level pipeline display (if enabled)	
View/Instruction Cache	Instruction cache contents
View/Data Cache		Data cache contents
View/Cache Statistics	Cache hits/misses
View/Exception Statistics	Record of exceptions 
View/Syscall Statistics	Record of sycalls made.  Not really functional yet, probably meant for MIPS sycalls when running on a MIPS machine.
View/Symbol Table	Global symbol table for current program.

Click on one of the menu items to open the corresponding window and bring it to the front.

Print/Registers
Print/Data
Print/Text
Print/Messages
Click on one of the menu items to print the corresponding view.  There are no formatting options right now...

Warning:  It is generally a bad idea to start or stop a program while it is waiting for keyboard input.  Weird things happen.

Please see the file NeXTspim.rtf for info on unimplemented features, future additions, etc.

Mark Gritter
mgritter@gac.edu
April 23, 1994