This project is dedicated to the memory of William Morris (aka Frags), who was the main contributor to the bounty but was unable to see the final result.

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Back on track

Finally, I am back on track with the development after the house move. There were two updates since the last post; one was a follow-up to the previous code refactoring; the other was a massive list of improvements:
  • Implementation of NEGX.x mem, NEGX.x Dy, SUBX.x -(Ay),-(Az), ADDX.x -(Ay),-(Az),  MOVE CCR,mem, MOVE CCR,Dx, EOR #imm,CCR, OR #imm,CCR, AND #imm,CCR, RTR, MOVE mem,CCR, MOVE Dx,CCR, MOVE #imm,CCR, ASR.x Dy,Dz, RTD, MULU.W mem,Dx, MULU.W #imm,Dx, MULS.W mem,Dx, MULS.W #imm,Dx, SUBX.x Dy,Dz, ADDX.x Dy,Dz, MOVEM.x regs,mem, MOVEM.x mem,regs, MOVEM.x (Ay)+,regs, CMPM.x (Ax)+,(Ay)+ instructions.
  • Added dependency tracking for non-volatile PowerPC registers.
  • Fixed X flag handling in register-based shifting instructions, previously the X flag was cleared together with the C flag if the shift steps were zero.
  • Removed RTM from the list of the potentially supported opcodes.
  • Added RTR back to the list of the potentially supported opcodes.
  • Optimized temporary register usage in MULU.W Dx,Dy and MULS.W Dx,Dy instructions.
  • Introduced tracking of the extension words after the instructions, it is needed for adjusting the PC before certain addressing modes are processed.
  • Fixed register dependency and order of register storage for MOVEM.x regs,-(Ay) when direct memory access is enabled.
  • Implemented stack-like concept for register saving into the context.
  • Code cleanup: removed unused reference, fixed some warnings regarding misformatted and unused code lines.
So, things are getting together slowly. The number of the implemented instructions went up to 321 out of the planned 387! That is roughly 82%... Getting closer and closer... :)

Recently I faced an interesting problem, I am not quite sure how can I solve: division by zero. My beloved math teacher already told me: who is trying to divide by zero is an idiot. (Well, that is not quite right, as we know it.) Yet, some programs might try it.
Why is that a problem? Because it triggers an exception inside a compiled block. It also needs branching (skip the exception triggering if the divisor is not null, for a change) which contradicts the macroblock register flow tracking. Well, here is the challenge, but I am pretty sure I will solve it somehow.

'Til then the usual: watch this space.