Visual x86 emulator

#1

Post by adamnemecek » Mon, Jun 08, 2015, 2:36 PM UTC

Re: Visual x86 emulator

#2

Post by squidbot » Mon, Jun 08, 2015, 6:41 PM UTC

This is a nifty visualizer, I'm going to show it to my daughter who I've been teaching programming. We haven't broached registers and general CPU design yet, but this has inspired me to do so!

It's interesting that the example shows overflow, but doesn't show the flags register. I'm not a web dev generally, but I think I may fork this one to show it as it exists in the emulator, it's just not rendered.

Re: Visual x86 emulator

#3

Post by eterps » Mon, Jun 08, 2015, 6:44 PM UTC

It shows the register state animated. It would be much more useful if you could see the previous register state permanently.

Re: Visual x86 emulator

#4

Post by gshrikant » Mon, Jun 08, 2015, 6:50 PM UTC

This is pretty neat! It is still a work-in-progress though as the Github issue [1] notes. I'd love to be able to edit the disassembly and play with the visualization when its done.

[1] https://github.com/thlorenz/visulator/issues/1

Re: Visual x86 emulator

#5

Post by thlorenz » Mon, Jun 08, 2015, 7:03 PM UTC

eterps wrote: post #3

It shows the register state animated. It would be much more useful if you could see the previous register state permanently.

That's not a bad idea. Please file an issue on github. Ideally with a sketch of how this would be laid out. This project is still in its infancy and I'm very open to suggestions.

Re: Visual x86 emulator

#6

Post by thlorenz » Mon, Jun 08, 2015, 7:05 PM UTC

gshrikant wrote: post #4

This is pretty neat! It is still a work-in-progress though as the Github issue [1] notes. I'd love to be able to edit the disassembly and play with the visualization when its done. [1] https://github.com/thlorenz/visulator/issues/1

> It is still a work-in-progress though

Exactly this is just a start and I'm actively working on it. Editing the assembly could be an option, but I also plan to allow users to load simple binaries into it. This way you could edit the assembly, assemble it and load.

However please file an issue with feature suggestions on github so we can track what people want.

Re: Visual x86 emulator

#7

Post by thlorenz » Mon, Jun 08, 2015, 7:07 PM UTC

squidbot wrote: post #2

This is a nifty visualizer, I'm going to show it to my daughter who I've been teaching programming. We haven't broached registers and general CPU design yet, but this has inspired me to do so! It's interesting that the example shows overflow, but doesn't show the flags register. I'm not a web dev generally, but I think I may fork this one to show it as it exists in the emulator, it's just not rendered.

> but doesn't show the flags register

This is the next feature I've planned. Hopefully I can get this done tonight - check back soon :)

It'll be visualized with LEDs that light up when a flag is set.

Re: Visual x86 emulator

#8

Post by thlorenz » Mon, Jun 08, 2015, 7:15 PM UTC

All who commented or whoever is interested in updates please follow #visulator and/or @thlorenz on twitter for updates.

Re: Visual x86 emulator

#9

Post by Hydraulix989 » Mon, Jun 08, 2015, 7:39 PM UTC

Is this a full emulation? MMU?

Re: Visual x86 emulator

#10

Post by thlorenz » Mon, Jun 08, 2015, 7:44 PM UTC

Hydraulix989 wrote: post #9

Is this a full emulation? MMU?

It will emulate as much of x86 as makes sense for it's purpose , to visualize assembly execution and how a CPU works.

It currently already contains a memory unit and supports push/pop instructions. More memory related instructions will be added.