- Timer
- The timer acts like a periodic alarm clock.
Each time the alarm goes off a timer interrupt is generated.
See timer.h and timer.cc for more information.
Note that the timer runs in simulation time, not in real time.
See interrupt.h for a discussion of how simulation
time elapses.
- Disk
- The disk stores persistent data.
The simulated disk is a very simple one.
It has one recording surface. The surface is divided
into tracks, and each track is divided into sectors.
The operating system may issue requests to read or to
write disk sectors. (Each request reads or writes a single
sector.)
Read and write requests are asynchronous.
When a request is completed, a disk interrupt is generated.
The simulator stores the contents of the simulated disk in
a Unix file called DISK_X, where X
is the identifier of the simulated machine.
(The machine identifier is zero by default, but it can
be changed using the -m command line argument
to nachos.)
See disk.h and disk.cc for more
information.
- Console
- The console simulates a display and a keyboard.
The operating system may issue requests to put characters to
the display, or to read characters from the keyboard.
The requests are asynchronous.
When incoming data is available, or when outgoing data has been
sent to the display, interrupts are generated.
By default, the console input is taken from the standard input
of the nachos program, and the console output is
sent to standard output.
Thus, console output should appear on your (real) display,
and keystrokes on your (real) keyboard are taken as console input.
Console input and output can be redirected to files using
nachos command line arguments.
See console.h and console.cc for more information.
- Network
- The network provides a means of communication among
multiple independent simulated workstations.
The operating system can use a simulated network to send and receive
small, fixed-length messages.
Message delivery is unreliable - messages may be lost.
The degree of unreliability can be controlled using
a command line parameter.
Message sending and receiving is asynchronous.
When data has been sent or when data is available to be received,
interrupts are generated.
The network simulation is implemented using Unix-domain sockets which
have names beginning with SOCKET_.
(Because of this implementation, all of the communicating
simulations must be running in the same directory on the same real machine.)
See network.h and network.cc for more information.
- MIPS Instruction Processor
- The processor is responsible for simulating the execution
of user programs.
The processor has a set of registers and a small (simulated) physical
memory for storing user programs and their data.
The contents of the registers and of memory can be read and
changed by the operating system.
It processor has address translation support
assist in translating virtual memory addresses to physical
addresses.
The address translation hardware includes a optional translation lookaside
buffer (TLB).
The TLB can be included into the workstation simulation by
setting a flag in the Makefile.
By default, it is not included.
When the user program executes a system call instruction,
or if a program error (such as divide-by-zero) occurs,
an exception is generated.
See machine.h, mipssim.h, translate.h,
machine.cc, mipssim.cc,
and translate.cc for more information.
- Interrupts
- This component simulates the interrupt and
exception mechanism.
Each of the other components of the simulated machine may
cause interrupts or exceptions to occur.
When one occurs, the hardware transfers control to
an interrupt handler (or exception handler), a function that
is part of the operating system.
The operating system must provide a handler for each type
of interrupt or exception.
See interrupt.h and interrupt.cc for more
information, and see
code/userprog/exception.cc for the (rudimentary)
exception handler that the operating system starts with.
Although you are encouraged to study the simulation source code,
you may not modify it, except as described in
code/machine/machine.h.
The operating system that you build must work with
the simulated workstation as given.