Installing M-Sim using Cygwin/SSH Secure Shell Client

This document is a guide to installing M-Sim on one of the ECS machines you have been given access to. These ECS machines are accessible using Cygwin or SSH secure shell software, which is available on all the machines in the Marston and Elab computer labs. You can also follow this procedure if you have your own machine running most mainstream Linux distributions. Note that there could be issues during installation if you are using Ubuntu Linux distribution. Cygwin is available for free at http://www.cygwin.com/mirrors.html.

1. Download M-Sim Tool Set

You may find [1] useful (see 4. Installation and Use):

M-Sim, though an extension of simplescalar, is an independent package. Therefore, you need not have simplescalar installed to use M-Sim. Though system requirements are not explicitly specified, to perform the lab assignments that follow, you will need an appropriate version of gcc (operation under version 3.4.4 has been verified). It has been confirmed that gcc v2.95.3 may cause compilation errors, so if you have an earlier version than gcc v3.4.4, try updating to this version before continuing installation. To download M-Sim, go to http://www.cs.binghamton.edu/~jsharke/m-sim/. The site will require you to register before initiating a download. After registration, select M-Sim-v2.0.tgz.

2. Transfer to an ECS machine (if applicable)

Transfer or copy m-sim-v2.0.tgz file onto an ECS machine using SSH Secure File Transfer Client (such as winSCP). It is recommended that you make a directory by the name of msim on the ECS machine (See fig 1 below) and transfer the file into this directory using SSH Secure File Transfer Client (See fig 2 below). An important note is that some of the ECS machines may not be sufficiently updated for the installation (sloth, for example). Speak with an ECS administrator if you encounter a problem of this type. As a last resort, a known-compatible ECS machine is vlsitest. Again, ask an ECS administrator what needs to be done to be granted access to vlsitest.

Figure 1: Msim directory creation

Figure 2: Transfer of m-sim-v2.0.tar

3. Install M-Sim

Now Unzip & untar the m-sim-v2.0.tgz file by logging into your account using Cygwin Shell or SSH Secure Shell Client (like putty). Go to the msim directory that you have just created and where you have transferred the file (See figure 3 below). Enter the tar command (see figure 4 below) to unzip and untar the file. A directory m-sim_v2.0 is created.

Figure 3: m-sim_v2.0.tgz file (at far right)

Figure 4: Untarring

Now, enter the m-sim_v-2.0 directory.

cd m-sim_v-2.0

Before executing make, a small problem must be overcome. The m-sim package was put together incorrectly, in a way that causes a series of errors when attempting to build. The problem involves the need to avoid an existing libexo.c file. To overcome this error, remove the file libexo.c from the libexo directory.

Type ‘make config-alpha’ from the m-sim_v-2.0 directory. Now type ‘make.’ An executable sim-outorder should be created.

4. Verify

Now verify that m-sim is installed correctly.

cd m-sim_v-2.0

./sim-outorder

If results are generated from this, m-sim is most likely installed correctly.

References:

1) http://www.cs.binghamton.edu/~jsharke/m-sim/documentation/msim_tr.pdf