Spim is a simulation tool for MIPS32 architecture that helps users to simulate and test programs written in MIPS32 assembly language.
If you're looking for a top-notch MIPS32 simulator, spim is a great choice. This self-contained program will easily run MIPS32 assembly language programs, making it a reliable debugging tool for your programming projects. Even better, spim comes with a simple debugger and a minimal selection of operating system services to further streamline your workflow. Keep in mind, however, that spim is not meant to execute binary programs.
One of the benefits of spim is that it supports almost the entire MIPS32 assembler-extended instruction set. You'll find that most floating point comparisons and rounding modes are omitted, as are the memory system page tables. Additionally, it's worth noting that the MIPS architecture has various modifications, so spim may not be able to run programs compiled for all types of MIPS processors. However, spim offers up a solution by allowing you to safely delete assembler directives generated by MIPS compilers.
In previous versions of spim, only the MIPS-I instruction set used on the MIPS R2000/R3000 computers was available. However, spim 7.0 supports the more modern MIPS32 architecture, a version augmented with a larger variety of useful instructions. While MIPS code from earlier spim installations should run without changes, you may want to make some updates for exceptions and interrupts. Examples of the new code can be found in exceptions.s and Tests/tt.io.s.
Spim even comes with complete source code and documentation, making it simple to get started with the program. You'll find that spim implements both a simple terminal-style interface as well as a window interface. While Unix, Linux, and Mac OS X users will want to use the spim program for the basic terminal interface and the xspim program for the windowing interface, Microsoft Windows users can use the spim program for a console interface and PCSpim for the Windows experience.
So what's new in this release? A lot! For example, spim has made improvements to its exception handler, and you can now use a semicolon-separated list of files that will be loaded in order. Additionally, spim no longer crashes when label is defined twice in succession, which is a significant improvement. You'll also find a clearer path for installing executables, an elimination of unnecessary null characters, and the elimination of "psfig" in favor of "epsfig" in the spim.tex documentation. Overall, we highly recommend using spim as your MIPS32 simulator of choice.
One of the benefits of spim is that it supports almost the entire MIPS32 assembler-extended instruction set. You'll find that most floating point comparisons and rounding modes are omitted, as are the memory system page tables. Additionally, it's worth noting that the MIPS architecture has various modifications, so spim may not be able to run programs compiled for all types of MIPS processors. However, spim offers up a solution by allowing you to safely delete assembler directives generated by MIPS compilers.
In previous versions of spim, only the MIPS-I instruction set used on the MIPS R2000/R3000 computers was available. However, spim 7.0 supports the more modern MIPS32 architecture, a version augmented with a larger variety of useful instructions. While MIPS code from earlier spim installations should run without changes, you may want to make some updates for exceptions and interrupts. Examples of the new code can be found in exceptions.s and Tests/tt.io.s.
Spim even comes with complete source code and documentation, making it simple to get started with the program. You'll find that spim implements both a simple terminal-style interface as well as a window interface. While Unix, Linux, and Mac OS X users will want to use the spim program for the basic terminal interface and the xspim program for the windowing interface, Microsoft Windows users can use the spim program for a console interface and PCSpim for the Windows experience.
So what's new in this release? A lot! For example, spim has made improvements to its exception handler, and you can now use a semicolon-separated list of files that will be loaded in order. Additionally, spim no longer crashes when label is defined twice in succession, which is a significant improvement. You'll also find a clearer path for installing executables, an elimination of unnecessary null characters, and the elimination of "psfig" in favor of "epsfig" in the spim.tex documentation. Overall, we highly recommend using spim as your MIPS32 simulator of choice.
What's New
Version 7.3: N/A