To run PCspim for Microsoft Windows, download the PCSpim.zip file from the BoneYard directory, unzip it, and click on setup.exe. Source for the Microsoft Windows version (PCspim) is available in those directories.
To run spim or xspim on a Unix, Linux, or Mac OS X system, get the source code from the SourceForge repository and compile it for your system.
There is no precompiled Mac version (but there is a QtSpim version). However, xspim compiles and runs on Mac OS X if you can find a way to install the Xaw library.
Versions of Spim before 7.0 implemented the MIPS-I instruction set used on the MIPS R2000/R3000 computers. This architecture is obsolete (though, never surpassed for its simplicity and elegance). Spim now supports the more modern MIPS32 architecture, which is the MIPS-I instruction set augmented with a large number of occasionally useful instructions. MIPS code from earlier versions of SPIM should run without changes, except code that handles exceptions and interrupts. This part of the architecture changed over time (and was poorly implemented in earlier versions of Spim). This type of code will need to be updated. Examples of new exception handling are in the files: exceptions.s and Tests/tt.io.s.
To run PCspim under Microsoft Windows, download the PCSpim.zip file from https://sourceforge.net/projects/spimsimulator/files/.
Unzip the file.
Click on the setup.exe program.
Installation is a bit more complex for these system, as you need to compile the program for your particular computer and operating system.
Download the files from the SourceForge repository. At the bottom of the list of files, there is a link to download a GNU tarball, which will get all the files in the latest version of the system. You don't need the Boneyard directory, which contains old versions, or QtSpim, but the other directories are useful.
The simple terminal interface is contained in the spim subdirectory and the X-windows interface is in the xspim subdirectory . The other directories are described in the README file.
Next, you must set the directories in which Spim will be installed
by editing the Makefile (the file that contains instructions on building
Spim). In general, if you are installing Spim and want the
windowing version (xspim), edit the file xspim/Imakefile . If
you don't want xspim or are running on a system without X-windows installed,
use the file spim/Makefile.
The programs are installed in standard locations, but you can change to other
locations:
EXCEPTION_DIR -- The full pathname of the directory in which to install the Spim exception handler (exceptions.s).
BIN_DIR -- The full pathname of the directory in which spim and xspim should be installed.
MAN_DIR -- The full pathname of the directory for the
man pages for spim and xspim.
In general, the remaining parameters in a Makefile need not be changed.
If you are building xspim, change to the xspim subdirectory
and type:
% xmkmf
% make
If your systems do not have xmkmf installed, you can use the Makefile
in the xspim subdirectory, but beware that it may not work on your system
because the paths to the X windows libraries could be different.
If you do not have X-windows, change to the spim subdirectory, edit
Makefile, and type:
% make
To run spim or xspim, the exception handler must be installed
in the directory specified by EXCEPTION_DIR in the Makefile. If exception.s
is not installed, spim and xspim fail before they start running.
You can either install this file by hand or by typing:
% make install
which also installs spim or xspim, and the man pages. You may
need root permission to install these files, in which case type:
% sudo make install
To test that Spim is correctly built, change to the spim
subdirectory and type:
% make test
and examine the output of the test. (Note: the exception handler must be installed
before running the test.)