ASH WARE – Embedded Software Tools since 1994
TPU Simulator Release Notes for all builds of V3.00
V3.00A New Features and Fixed Bugs
Bug 1: In the Logic Analyzer vertical cursors are sometimes not displayed.
Overview: This occurred only when the logic analyzer is zoomed in to a very closely.
Impact: You could not zoom in very closely very reliably.
Status: This has been fixed.
Bug 2: In the Logic Analyzer the goto cursor function does not work at first.
Overview: When the TPU Simulator is first launched the goto cursor function accessed from within the logic analyzer by right-clicking the mouse does not work properly until the set_cpu_frequency(X) command in a script file is encountered.
Impact: You could not use the Logic Analyzer's goto cursor function reliably when the application was first launched..
Status: This has been fixed.
V3.00B New Features and Fixed Bugs
Feature 1: CPU32 Simulator products are now at beta. All features are now supported.
Overview: This release brings CPU32 Simulator to beta. Several features were missing. These include the timing model, the table lookup instruction, inter-target interrupts, and exceptions.
Impact: There are now no missing features.
Status: CPU32/TPU System Simulator and the CPU32 Stand-Alone Simulator products are now at beta.
Bug 1: From within Windows explorer you could not load the project file by double clicking on it.
Overview: All project files are registered in windows such that if you double-click on the project file the MtDt project (TPU Simulator, etc.) automatically launches the appropriate ASH WARE simulator or debugger and loads the selected project. The problem is that Windows was making a copy of the project file before launching the application such that you would generate a new project file each time you launched the application using this method. It turns out that the name of the registered application must be enclosed in quotes when it resides in a directory whose name contains a space.
Impact: This capability was effectively disabled.
Status: This has been fixed.
Bug 2: This installation utility was not generating the application name in the Windows menu structure.
Overview: The ASH WARE installation utility generates a number of menu items allowing you to launch and load a variety of demonstration programs. But the installation utility failed to generate the generic menu item that allows you to launch the application and load previously-open project file.
Impact: From the Windows menu you could only load a demonstration project. You would then have to manually load your desired project. Note that the last-open project file would be properly opened if you double clicked on the application.
Status: This has been fixed.
V3.00C New Features and Fixed Bugs
Feature 1: 68332 Debugger product is now at beta. All features are now supported.
Overview: This release brings the 68332 Debugger product to beta. Impact: There are now no missing features.
Status: 68332 Debugger is now at beta.
Feature 2: Improved compiler support on CPU32 products.
Overview: The 68332 debugger and CPU32 simulator products now support the GNU "C" compiler.
Status/Impact: The GNU, Introl, and Diab-Data "C" compilers are now fully supported.
Enhancement 1: Improved Step-Out and Step-Over performance.
Overview: By changing the algorithm, the Step-Out and Step-Over performance has been significantly enhanced for most targets.
Impact: BDM Hardware targets execute Step-Out and Step-Over ~10,000X faster. CPU16 and CPU32 Simulator products execute Step-Out ~10X faster. CPU16 and CPU32 Simulator products execute Step-Over ~3X faster. Due to limitations in the Motorola TPU Assembler, the Step-Out and Step-Over functions are not supported in the TPU Simulator.
Status: The new algorithm has been implemented.
Bug 1: Memory leaks in certain windows.
Overview: During memory update there are memory leaks during window updates of certain types of windows.
Impact: This could cause the application to crash if the target is running for several hours while the particular windows are visible. The exact amount of time depended on if you have a screen saver, the amount of RAM in your computer, your virtual memory settings, you computer speed, and which windows you have visible (most windows did not leak). The worst windows types were the trace windows, and the worst application was the 68332 debugger while free-running.
Status: There are no longer memory leaks in any style window.
Bug 2: Step-Over and Step-Out do not work in CPU16 Simulator targets
Overview: The Step-Over and Step-Out functions acted exactly like the Step-Into function when stepping the SIM16 targets.
Impact: Loss of these specific stepping capabilities, but only when stepping a SIM16 target.
Status: These stepping capabilities now work.
V3.00D New Features and Fixed Bugs
Feature 1: TPU/CPU32 System Simulator and CPU32 Stand-Alone Simulator now at production.
Overview: This release brings these two products to production.
Impact: These products are now at a production quality level.
Status: Implemented.
Enhancement 1: Warning message improved on TPUMASM bug.
Overview: There is a TPUMASM bug in which no line number information is generated when multiple micro-instructions are associated with a single line of source code. A warning message now appears that specifically identifies this TPU MASM bug. The previously-generated warning message was obtuse.
Impact: TPU/CPU32 System Simulator. TPU Stand-Alone Simulator.
Status: Implemented.
Bug 1: A nuisance error message is generated when Mixed-Assembly view is selected.
Overview: The default cursor line in the source code windows is line 12. When a new source code window is opened there is no bounds check on the cursor line. When opening a window to view a source code file, the cursor is not visible as it is below the end of the window. If the mixed-assembly view is then selected, an internal diagnostic warning appears. This has been fixed by performing a bounds check on the cursor line on all newly-opened text windows.
Impact: A nuisance error message was occasionally generated on a newly-opened source code window.
Status: Fixed.
Bug 2: Disassembled TPU Microcode is not visible
Overview: This only occurs in the following situation: Projects that are converted from 2.X using the conversion utility A source code windows has the mixed-assembly option enabled The mixed-assembly capability allows viewing of TPU macro instruction in their raw binary format within source-code windows. Version 2.X did not support this capability and by pure dumb luck, the color saved in old project files was white which is the same as the background window color. This makes the mixed-assembly view invisible. This has been fixed by making the mixed-assembly color blue when this situation is detected.
Impact: The mixed assembly portion of source code windows was not visible.
Status: Fixed.