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What about a simulator for the Propeller? — Parallax Forums

What about a simulator for the Propeller?

PropeleroPropelero Posts: 5
edited 2006-11-23 22:53 in Propeller 1
Hello!

I'm new at this forum. I'm a student and thinking about purchasing a Propeller Demo Board, and interested in using this microcontroller for a real-time embedded control system i have in mind, but i haven`t found yet anything similar to an emulator of this chip, and also haven´t read anything in this forum about it. So my question is... is there a project about making a simulator of the Propeller chip, or in anybody's mind? It would help me a lot for my work, because i need to see how does the Propeller use the memory in run-time.

Thanks a lot

Comments

  • ciw1973ciw1973 Posts: 64
    edited 2006-11-23 18:17
    Hell, even with the current crop of PC processors running at 3Ghz+ you'd have a hard job emulating the Propeller with all eight cogs running in realtime.

    Even at a basic level, and assuming the propeller instruction set matched that in the PC CPU, you'd need a processor running at 640Mhz even without the time required task switching. The fact that you would have to task switch would mean that the emulated cogs wouldn't be truly in sync, which would be a problem for many of the applications people are using the Propeller for. By the time you factor in instruction set and hardware (hub, PLL, video etc.) emulation, and any debugging interfaces that would be required to make an emualtor useful, I'd say it'd be completely out of the question.

    A single (or maybe even dual) cog simulator running at full speed should be possible, although how much use it'd be I don't know. I guess you could have a non-realtime simulator which would be good for educational purposes.
  • HarleyHarley Posts: 997
    edited 2006-11-23 19:05
    Propelero,
    Here's my take on this situation. idea.gif I just use the TV_text object to display 'debugging' information. See attachment. I have two Props interfaced to each other and to two other pcbs; had to use two Props as there are more than 32 I/Os to deal with.

    This lets me 'see' what is happening inside the Prop, until I can get far enough along with the code. Eventually, some of the 'debug' stuff will remain; especially if it isn't slowing down any signalling.

    Just a hint. The old BS2 debugging scheme; display 'something' if the program gets to a particular point(s). Might just comment them out once things work OK and you have peace of mind things are right. Or delete; or 'reuse' parts of the code for other debug points. Better than blink a LED in many cases. My $0.02. yeah.gif

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    Harley Shanko
    h.a.s. designn
  • PropeleroPropelero Posts: 5
    edited 2006-11-23 22:05
    Thank you so much for your answers. My english is quite poor, and i think i expressed myself badly. A non-realtime simulator of the Propeller which could run in my PC would be more than enough for me, just for debugging programs step-by-step, and seeing how the cogs treat the memory, etc.... I don't need it to see all eight cogs running in realtime (that would be fantastic i think, hehe ). ¿Do you know if there is anything available? ¿Is there a project about making this tool, or something similar?

    Thank you
  • HarleyHarley Posts: 997
    edited 2006-11-23 22:35
    IMHO, this would be quite expensive. In the $10 thousands, possibly.

    If you DO find what you're looking for, please let this forum know about such a 'tool'. Please..... yeah.gif

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    Harley Shanko
    h.a.s. designn
  • nutsonnutson Posts: 242
    edited 2006-11-23 22:53
    In this thread http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?p=597533·an·alpha version of a propeller emulator has been posted.

    Nico Hattink
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