JP2000194582A - Emulation system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an emulation system which requires no special hardware to execute existent software, developed for operation in specific execution environment, in different hardware environment as it is. SOLUTION: An indication analysis part 21 analyzes a command character string inputted from an input device 1 to decide whether the command is issued to its system or existent software 31 and then checks whether or not the software corresponding to the command is present in the existent software 31. A code analysis part 22 analyzes the code of the existent software 31. A dummy operation execution part 23 while properly referring to data 32 that the existent software 31 uses converts the operation to operation corresponding the execution environment wherein the existent software 31 was running, thereby emulating the operation of the input command. Then the dummy operation execution part 23 outputs the dummy operation execution result as output data 41 to an output device 4.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to an emulation system for operating existing software in a hardware environment different from the original execution environment. In particular, the present invention relates to an emulation system which is applied to a semiconductor test device or the like and is realized only by software without depending on a specific hardware environment.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art For example, when a computer which has been used in the past is discontinued and a new type of computer needs to be introduced, the following problem arises. That is, in general, the hardware environment is not compatible between the model originally used and the newly introduced model, and it becomes impossible to inherit many software assets that have been operating on the conventional model.

This is because, in the technical field such as a semiconductor test apparatus, much of the software operating on the apparatus is coded using a hardware-dependent assembler language. Therefore, with the transition from the conventional model to the new model, it becomes necessary to re-code the software equivalent to the existing software to operate on the new model.

[0004]

However, recoding all of the enormous software assets is not realistic in view of the time and labor required for the recoding. From the above, it is conceivable to construct a system for operating existing software on a newly installed computer. This type of system is generally called an emulation system, emulator, or the like.

[0005] However, a general emulation system that has been used in the past generally uses hardware that depends on the original execution environment. That is, in the conventional emulation system, specific hardware is an indispensable component in order to absorb an operation difference related to an input / output interface with a peripheral device. For example, if the bus width of the input / output interface differs between the conventional model and the new model,
Special hardware for converting the bit width of the bus to each other is required.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and has as its object to execute existing software developed to operate under a specific execution environment as it is under another hardware environment. Another object of the present invention is to realize an emulation system that does not require any specific hardware.

[0007]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention according to claim 1 is to convert existing software in an executable format operating under a specific execution environment into an arbitrary hardware different from the execution environment. An emulation system that operates in an environment, wherein the existing software and data used by the existing software are stored in advance, and the code of the existing software is analyzed by referring to the data. Is converted into an operation in the hardware environment, and a simulating means for simulating the operation of the existing software in a software manner is provided.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, the simulating means traces and outputs the execution progress of the simulating operation.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the first or second aspect of the present invention, there is provided an execution instruction analyzing means for selecting an execution instruction for the existing software from the input commands and outputting the execution instruction to the simulation means. It is characterized by. According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, the simulating means displays an error detected during the execution of the simulating operation.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the emulation system according to the present embodiment. In FIG. 1, an input device 1 is a general input device such as a keyboard and a mouse. The input device 1 is a command for giving an instruction to the system itself and a command for giving an instruction to existing software operating on a conventional model. A command or the like is input.

The processing device 2 is a computer operated under program control, and is for realizing the emulation system. Each of the units provided in the processing device 2 (that is, the instruction analysis unit 21, the code analysis unit 22, and the pseudo operation execution unit 23) is realized by software running in a hardware environment of the computer. In the present embodiment, the C language, which is a programming language independent of the model, is used to realize this software. However, it is conceivable to use various other high-level languages as long as the programming language can maintain compatibility between different environments. The processing device 2
The function of each unit will be described in the operation description.

The storage device 3 is a large-capacity storage medium such as a hard disk.
Is stored in advance. Among them, the existing software 31 is an executable program (that is, a machine language or a machine language) that runs on a computer of a conventional model that has been discontinued. In other words, existing software 3
1 is created in an environment different from that of the present system, and the existing software 31 cannot be run directly under the hardware environment of the processing device 2. On the other hand, the data 32 is various data referred to by the existing software 31.

The output device 4 is a storage medium such as a hard disk or a magneto-optical disk, and the results of execution by the processing device 2 are stored on these storage media. Of course, the output device 4 may be constituted by an output device such as a display or a printer. In this case, the execution result of the processing device 2 is displayed on the display as it is, or is printed on paper via the printer. .

Next, the operation of the emulation system having the above configuration will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. First, when the user inputs various execution instructions as commands from the input device 1 (step S1), the commands are supplied to the instruction analysis unit 21 of the processing device 2. Then, the instruction analysis unit 21 analyzes the character string of the input command (step S2), and determines whether the command is an execution instruction for the emulation system itself or an execution instruction for the existing software 31. A determination is made (step S3).

If the input command is for its own system (the determination result in step S3 is "N
O ″), the instruction analyzing unit 21 completes the operation related to the command by processing the process corresponding to the command by an operation executing unit (not shown).
As will be described later, there is a trace instruction for displaying the execution progress of the existing software 31, and an operation execution unit (not shown) transmits the input trace instruction to the pseudo operation execution unit 23. On the other hand, the input command is an execution instruction for the existing software 31 (Step S).
If the determination result of step 3 is "YES"), the instruction analysis unit 21 searches the storage device 3 to determine whether the software targeted for the execution instruction exists in the existing software 31 (step S4). .

In this case, if there is no target software (the determination result in step S5 is "NO"),
The instruction analyzer 21 displays an error message to that effect on a display (not shown) (step S12), and ends the emulation operation related to the execution instruction.
On the other hand, when the target software exists in the existing software 31 (the determination result of step S5 is “YE
S ″), the instruction analysis unit 21 loads the existing software 31 into the processing device 2, and then performs the processing on the code analysis unit 2.
Delegate to 2.

The code analysis unit 22 analyzes the code (machine language) on the existing software 31 corresponding to the execution instruction one by one, and converts the code into a format that can be easily processed by the pseudo operation execution unit 23 (step S6). ). Normally, this analysis process does not fail. However, if an error occurs due to inconsistency at the time of analysis (the determination result in step S7 is “YES”), the code analysis unit 22 displays on a display (not shown). An error message is displayed (step S12), and the emulation operation relating to the command is terminated. On the other hand, when the code analysis is completed normally (the determination result in step S7 is “NO”), the code analysis unit 22 passes the code analysis result to the pseudo operation execution unit 23.

The simulated operation execution unit 23 predicts the functions and operations of the existing software 31 while referring to the data 32 stored in the storage device 3 as needed, and converts the code of the existing software 31 into itself. The operation is converted into an operation according to the execution environment of the system. Thereby, the operation of the existing software 31 corresponding to the input execution instruction is realized in the hardware environment of the processing device 2. At this time, if the command outputs an execution result, the simulated operation execution unit 23 sends the execution result to the output device 4 as output data 41 (Step S).
8). If an error is detected during the simulated operation execution process (the determination result of step S9 is “YES”), the simulated operation execution unit 23 displays an error message such as an error factor on a display (not shown) (step S12). Then, the emulation operation for the command is terminated.

On the other hand, when the execution of the simulated operation is normally performed (the determination result in step S9 is "NO"), the simulated operation execution unit 23 determines whether or not the above-described tracing instruction is issued (step S10). If the trace instruction does not exist (the determination result of the step is “NO”),
The simulated operation execution unit 23 completes the emulation operation related to the specified command. On the other hand, when the trace instruction has been issued (the determination result in step S10 is “YES”), the simulated operation execution unit 23 displays the execution progress of the simulated operation performed in step S8 on a display (not shown) (step S10). After S11), the emulation operation for the specified command is completed.

[0019]

As described above, according to the present invention, the code of the existing software is analyzed by referring to the data used by the existing software in the executable form operating under a specific execution environment, and The operation is converted into an operation under an arbitrary hardware environment different from the environment, and the operation of the existing software is simulated as software. As a result, the operation of existing software operating under various execution environments can be realized as software under completely different hardware environments of the input device and the output device, so that there is an advantage that no specific hardware is required. There is. For this reason, it is not necessary to individually build hardware to cope with various diversified execution environments, and it is possible to cope with the modification only by software.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an emulation system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the operation of the system.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 1 input device 2 processing device 3 storage device 4 output device 21 instruction analysis unit 22 code analysis unit 23 pseudo operation execution unit 31 existing software 32 data 41 output data

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. An emulation system for operating existing software in an executable format that operates under a specific execution environment under an arbitrary hardware environment different from the execution environment, wherein the emulation system uses the existing software and the existing software. A storage unit in which data to be stored is stored in advance, and analyzing the code of the existing software while referring to the data, converting the code into an operation under the hardware environment, and converting the operation of the existing software into software. Emulating system for performing an emulating operation. 2. The emulation system according to claim 1, wherein the simulating means traces and outputs the execution progress of the simulating operation. 3. The emulation system according to claim 1, further comprising an execution instruction analysis unit that selects an execution instruction for the existing software from the input commands and outputs the execution instruction to the simulation unit. 4. The emulation system according to claim 1, wherein the simulating means displays an error detected during the execution of the simulating operation.