PowerPC Architectural Simulator Setup

The PowerPC simulator is an architectural simulator which implements all the features of the PowerPC needed to run eCos. The current implementation provides accurate simulation of the instruction set and timers, as well as having generic support for diagnostic output and exceptions.

The simulator also allows devices to be simulated, but no device simulation support has been defined for the serial device drivers in this release.

To simplify connection to the simulator, you are advised to create a GDB macro by putting the following code in your personal GDB start-up file (gdb.ini on Windows and .gdbinit on UNIX).

define psim   
 target sim -o ’/iobus/pal@0xf0001000/reg 0xf0001000 32’   
 rbreak cyg_test_exit   
 rbreak cyg_assert_fail  
end

You can then connect to the simulator by invoking the command psim on the command line:

(gdb) psim

You can achieve the same effect by typing out the macro’s content on the command line if necessary.

Note: The PowerPC simulator cannot execute binaries built for any of the supported hardware targets. You must generate a configuration using the PowerPC simulator platform:

$ ecosconfig new psim
or some such.