Emulating aarch64 in software using JIT compilation and Rust
15 days ago
- #Rust
- #emulation
- #aarch64
- The article discusses the development of a simple just-in-time (JIT) compiled emulator for the aarch64 ISA using Rust.
- The emulator's initial scope focuses on basic functionality, excluding optional features like SIMD.
- The project was inspired by QEMU’s Tiny Code Generator (TCG) but implemented from scratch in Rust.
- Key steps in the emulation process include disassembling aarch64 binary code and translating each instruction using Cranelift’s JIT backend.
- The emulator organizes instructions into translation blocks to improve performance by emulating multiple instructions at once.
- Devices like the PL011 UART peripheral are implemented to facilitate basic I/O operations, such as printing to stdout.
- The emulator supports debugging via GDB using the gdbstub Rust library, allowing for remote debugging and single-stepping.
- Testing strategies include unit tests for individual instructions and running a simple bare metal program to verify functionality.
- Future goals include booting Linux, which requires adding features like exception handling, timer support, MMU, and an interrupt controller.
- The project repository and additional resources are provided for further exploration.