Extending Sim286 to the Intel386 Architecture with 32-bit processing and Elf Binary input

Michael L. Haungs

September 21, 1998

Abstract:

The trend in processor development is that each new processor is soon replaced by a newer and more powerful processor. To facilitate processor development, the design and implementation of a processor is typically paralleled by the design and implementation of a simulator that can be used to avoid errors in the development process. The ideal is that the family of processors should be accompanied by the design and implementation of a family of simulators where each successive simulator can be derived from the previous by an incremental change in both the design and implementation of the simulator. In this paper, we report the addition of Sim386 to a family of simulators, Simx86, for the Intel 80x86 family of processors. The construction of Sim386 involved two important extension over its predecessor. First, Sim386 performs both 16 and 32-bit processing; the predecessor of Sim386, Sim286, performed 16-bit processing. Second, Sim386 can accept both COM and ELF binary file input; the predecessor of Sim386, Sim286, accepted only COM file input. The second extension makes Sim386 a more viable tool, since ELF binaries are more widely accessible than COM files.