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README.md
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# Welcome to the Bochs IA-32 Emulator Project
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Bochs is a portable IA-32 (x86) PC emulator written in C++,
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that runs on most popular platforms. It includes emulation of the Intel x86
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CPU, common I/O devices, and a custom BIOS.
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Bochs can be compiled to emulate many different x86 CPUs, from early 386 to
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the most recent (sometimes even pre-market) x86-64 Intel and AMD processors.
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Bochs is capable of running most Operating Systems inside the emulation
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including Linux, DOS or Microsoft Windows.
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Bochs provides many different modes of operation, in support of a wide
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variety of use cases. The 'typical' use of bochs is to provide complete
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x86 PC emulation, including the x86 processor, hardware devices, and memory.
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This allows you to run OS's and software within the emulator on your workstation,
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much like you have a machine inside of a machine. For instance, let's say
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your workstation is a Unix/X11 workstation, but you want to run Win'95
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applications. Bochs will allow you to run Win 95 and associated software on
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your Unix/X11 workstation, displaying a window on your workstation, simulating
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a monitor on a PC.
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## Bochs Approach
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Bochs is an emulator - not virtualization software. It is portable across many
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architectures: x86, ARM, MIPS, etc. This means it must be able to emulate
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every CPU instruction.
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This distinguishes Bochs from virtualization solutions like e.g. VirtualBox,
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VMWare, etc. Those projects provide a nice user experience and fast
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performance, at the cost of hardware constraints, some non-determinism and
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some necessary hacks to get programs working.
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Bochs' emulation provides a controlled, accurate execution environment, at
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the cost of speed/performance. This can be advantageous in some situations,
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for example:
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* When developing an operating system or bootloader
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* When dealing with very old, mission-critical software
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* When reverse-engineering system-level code
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For more information, see [the intro section](https://bochs.sourceforge.io/cgi-bin/topper.pl?name=New+Bochs+Documentation&url=https://bochs.sourceforge.io/doc/docbook/user/index.html) in the user guide.
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## Installing
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You can download Bochs from the [project page on SourceForge](https://sourceforge.net/projects/bochs/files/bochs/2.7/). See the
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CHANGES file for details on the most recent releases.
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## Usage
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See [the documentation](https://bochs.sourceforge.io/cgi-bin/topper.pl?name=New+Bochs+Documentation&url=https://bochs.sourceforge.io/doc/docbook/).
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## Contributing
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To get started, see [Bochs Developer Guide](https://bochs.sourceforge.io/cgi-bin/topper.pl?name=New+Bochs+Documentation&url=https://bochs.sourceforge.io/doc/docbook/).
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We currently need help with the below tasks. To help with one of these tasks, please contact Volker Ruppert or Stanislav Shwartsman.
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### Bug Reports
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Mouse, interrupt controller, timer, IDE controller, network
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card, keyboard, VGA... Most of our bug reports and feature requests are due
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to incomplete C++ models of the various PC devices. To improve this, we
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need PC Hardware Gurus who know where to find the specs for this stuff and
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improve the hardware models for Bochs. Working on models is a fun way to
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learn how things work, and unlike designing a real hard disk, you can test
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out your changes on a real operating system immediately!
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### Disk Images
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Our collection of disk images is getting out of date. It would be great to
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have small or large images of a variety of free operating systems.
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### Documentation
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Adding installation help and other useful information into the docs.
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## Papers/Presentations
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* Bochs was presented at ISCA-35 in Beijing, China at "The 1st Workshop on
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Architectural and Microarchitectural Support for Binary Translation" by a
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paper "Virtualization without direct execution - designing a portable VM".
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* [Paper](https://bochs.sourceforge.io/Virtualization_Without_Hardware_Final.pdf)
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* [Slides](http://bochs.sourceforge.net/VirtNoJit.pdf)
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## Authors
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Bochs was originally written by Kevin Lawton and is currently maintained by this project.
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