spim mips simulator

SPIM: a MIPS simulator

Michele [email protected]

University of Insubria - Varese (IT)

26.11.2008

Michele Chinosi (Univ. Insubria) SPIM: a MIPS simulator 26.11.2008 1 / 22

Outline

1 IntroductionGetting started with SPIMSPIM installationDocumentation

2 XSPIMGetting started with xspimLoad and execute programs

3 Conclusions


The SPIM simulator

SPIM

SPIM is a MIPS R2000/R3000 RISC computer simulator

Websitehttp://www.cs.wisc.edu/∼larus/spim.html

Version

The current version of SPIM is 7.3 (August 2006)


A screenshot of SPIM


Some features

SPIM:

can read and immediately execute files containing assembly language

provides a simple debugger and minimal set of operating system services

does not execute binary (compiled) programs

implements almost the entire MIPS32 assembler-extended instruction set

comes with complete source code and documentation

implements both a simple, terminal-style interface and a grafical userinterface


User interfaces

Unix, Linux, Mac OS XOn Unix, Linux and Mac OS X the spim program provides a simple terminalinterface and the xspim program provides the windowing interface

Microsoft WindowsOn Microsoft Windows the spim program provides a console interface and thePCSpim program provides a Windows interface


Terminal-style interface


Xspim interface


PCSpim interface


How to install SPIM on Microsoft Windows

It’s very simple!1 Download SPIM from

http://www.cs.wisc.edu/∼larus/SPIM/pcspim.zip and save it on yourmachine

2 Unzip the file

3 Click on the setup.exe program


How to install SPIM on Unix, Linux and Mac OS X

It’s not so simple...1 Download SPIM from

http://www.cs.wisc.edu/∼larus/SPIM/spim.tar.gz2 Move the file spim.tar.gz to the directory in which you want to build spim

and decompress it:$ tar -zxvf spim.tar.gz

3 It will create a directory named spim-7.3 (or the most recent version number)

4 The simple terminal interface is contained in the spim-7.3/spim directory andthe X-window interface is in the spim-7.3/xspim directory


How to install SPIM on Unix, Linux and Mac OS X (2)

It’s not so simple...5 You must set the directories in which spim will be installed by editing the

Makefile (the file that contains instructions on building spim).xspim → xspim/Imakefilespim → spim/Makefile.3 pathnames: EXCEPTION DIR, BIN DIR, MAN DIR.

6 If you are using Imakefile file, change to the spim-7.3/xspim dir and type:$ xmkmf$ make

7 If you do not have X-windows, change to the spim-7.3/spim dir and type:$ make

8 To run spim or xspim, you have to install the exception handler(exceptions.s). Thus, become root and type:# make install

9 To test that spim is correctly build, from spim-7.3/spim type:$ make test


How to install SPIM on Unix, Linux and Mac OS X (3)

But...

If you are using a Debian-based distribution (like Ubuntu, Mepis, Xandros,Knoppix), it is enough to run:

user@system:$ sudo apt-get install spim

or the equivalent package management system for your Linux distro:

synaptic

aptitude

. . .


How to install SPIM

That’s it!For further information, please visit:http://www.cs.wisc.edu/∼larus/spim.html


Documentation

Where to find some other referencesPatterson & Hennessy, Computer Organization and Design: Thehardware/software interface, Appendix A

MIPS32 Architecture for Programmers Volume I,II,III, the officialdocumentation provided by MIPS Inc.

Other two books edited by Morgan Kaufmann:

See MIPS run, written by Dominic SweetmanThe MIPS programmer’s handbook, written by Erin Farquhar and Philip Bunce

Getting started with [spim|xspim|PCSpim], a simple overview of these threealternatives

SPIM Command-Line Options, a simple tutorial

http://www.google.com


Let’s start using xspim

How to start xspim

To start xspim go to spim-7.3/xspim directory and type:$ xspim

When xspim starts up, it pops up a large window on your screen. This window isdivided into five panes:

Register display

Control buttons

text segment

data and stack segment

SPIM messages


Xspim window


Xspim window (ctd.)

Register display

This pane shows the values of all registers in the MIPS CPU and FPU. Thisdisplay is updated whenever your program stops running

Control buttonsThese buttons let us interact with simulator. We will discuss more in details aboutthem later on.

Text segments

This pane displays instructions from both your program and the system code thatis loaded automatically when xspim starts running.


Xspim window (ctd.)

Data and Stack segments

This pane displays the data loaded into your program’s memory and the data onthe program’s stack.

SPIM messages

The bottom pane is used by xspim to write messages. This is where errormessages appear.


Load and Run

Load program into xspim

Once you have started xspim, you can load a new program simply clicking onLoad button.Then select the file you want to execute and confirm.SPIM loads your program into text segment, and redraws panes to see programdata.

Run program

To run your program, simply click on Run button.If you don’t see your instruction in the text segment click on the scrollbar on theleft of panes.


spim and PCSpim

The instructions for command-line version and Microsoft Windows version are ondocuments already presented.

It is recommended that you read carefully all the documentation provided withSPIM simulator in order to execute properly your programs.


Conclusions

Which of the three version of SPIM you have to use?

You are free to use simple command-line spim version rather than PCSpim versionor xspim verson.It is suggested to use xspim.

And now... let’s play with SPIM!


spim mips simulator

Technology

insubria spim

spim simulatorspim spim

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building spim

spim thats

mips simulator michele

download spim fromhttp

current version of spim