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- work in progress. I'm in the middle of writing the first section

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"What is Bochs?"
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Bryce Denney 2001-09-11 14:01:55 +00:00
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bochs/doc/docbook/user/user.dbk
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<!--
================================================================
doc/docbook/user/user.dbk
$Id: user.dbk,v 1.2 2001-09-10 03:59:11 bdenney Exp $
$Id: user.dbk,v 1.3 2001-09-11 14:01:55 bdenney Exp $
This is the top level file for the Bochs Users Manual.
================================================================
-->
<!DOCTYPE book PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook V4.1//EN" >
<!DOCTYPE book PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook V4.1//EN" [
<!ENTITY FIXME '<inlinegraphic format="GIF" fileref="../images/undercon.gif">'>
]>
<book>
<bookinfo>
<title>Bochs User Manual</title>
@ -19,27 +21,119 @@ This is the top level file for the Bochs Users Manual.
</bookinfo>
<!-- *************************************************************** -->
<chapter><title>What is Bochs?</title>
<section><title>I don't know whant to call this section...</title>
<para>
Bochs is a portable x86 PC emulation software package that emulates
enough of the x86 CPU, related AT hardware, and BIOS to run DOS,
Windows '95, Minix 2.0, and other OS's, all on your workstation.
</para>
<chapter><title>Introduction to Bochs</title>
<section><title>What is Bochs?</title>
<para>
Bochs is a program that simulates a complete Intel x86 computer. It
can be configured to act like a 286, 386, 486, Pentium, or Pentium Pro.
Bochs interprets every instruction from power-up to reboot, and has
device models for all of the standard PC peripherals: keyboard, mouse,
VGA card/monitor, disks, timer chips, network card, etc. Because Bochs
simulates the whole PC environment, the the software running in the simulation
"believes" it is running on a real machine. This approach allows Bochs
to run a wide variety of software with no modification, include most popular
x86 operating systems: Windows 95/98/NT, all Linux flavors, all BSD flavors,
and more.
</para>
<para>
Bochs is written in the C++ programming language, and is designed to run
on many different host platforms<footnote>
<para>
Since Bochs can run on one kind of machine and simulate another machine, we
have to be clear in our terminology to avoid confusion. The host platform is
the machine that runs the Bochs software. The guest platform is the operating
system and applications that Bochs is simulating.
</para>
</footnote>: x86, PPC, Alpha, Sun, MIPS, and probably more. To do anything
useful, the simulated Bochs machine needs to communicate with the operating
system on the host platform (the host OS). When you press a key in the
Bochs window, a key event goes into the device model for the keyboard. When
the simulated machine reads from the simulated hard disk, Bochs reads from
a disk image file on the host machine. When the simulated machine sends
a network packet to the local network, Bochs uses the host platform's network
card to send the packet out into the real world. These interactions between
Bochs and the host operating system can be complicated, and are sometimes
host-platform-specific. (Sending a network packet in FreeBSD requires
different code than sending the packet in Windows 95.) The interactions
between Bochs and the host OS are sometimes non-portable, but the core
CPU simulation and device models are portable to any platform with a C++
compiler.
</para>
<para>
<!-- really more like Background or Bochs History, but maybe it doesn't need its own section unless it gets to 3 paras or so -->
Bochs was written by Kevin Lawton starting in &FIXME;. It began as a
commercial product, which you could try out for 30 days and then buy
for &FIXME;. [We need a Bochs historian here. There's an interview
out there somewhere where Kevin says why he started it and some more
background information.] Finally, in March 2000, Mandrakesoft bought
Bochs and made it open source under the GNU LGPL. In March 2001,
Kevin helped a few developers to move all Bochs activities from bochs.com
to a new site at bochs.sourceforge.net. Since then the Bochs Project has
settled into its new home, and around release times has even hit #1 most
active project of the week at Source Forge.
</para>
<!-- we should make it clear that Kevin is no longer working on bochs,
but I want to get some more background. Did he get hired by Mandrakesoft
to do plex86 at the same time as Bochs was bought? The last version of
Bochs that he released was 3/25/2000, three days after the Mandrake press
release. -->
</section> <!-- end of Introduction:What is Bochs? section -->
<section><title>Who uses Bochs?</title>
<para>
</para>
<para>
Bochs is an open source project distributed under the GNU Lesser General
Public License. It was originally a commercial product, but in
March 2000 MandrakeSoft bought Bochs and committed it to Open Source.
Here is the press release.
run more than one operating system without rebooting
</para>
<para>
Bochs now compiles/runs on many platforms. See the following list for
supported platforms and special notes:
OS developers use Bochs to system software without endangering
their development machine or rebooting.
</para>
<para>
students use Bochs to learn about how PC hardware works
hardware designers use bochs to help test new hardware
</para>
</section> <!-- end of Introduction:Who uses Bochs? section -->
<section><title>Will it work for me?</title>
<para>
</para>
</section> <!-- end of Introduction:Will it work for me? section -->
<section><title>License</title>
<para>
</para>
</section> <!-- end of Introduction:License section -->
<table><title>Supported platforms</title>
<section><title>--------------Ignore the sections after this--------------</title>
<para>
</para>
</section> <!-- end of Introduction:License section -->
<section><title>I don't know what to call this section...</title>
<para>
Bochs is a portable x86 PC emulation software package that emulates
enough of the x86 CPU, related AT hardware, and BIOS to run DOS,
Windows '95, Minix 2.0, and other OS's, all on your workstation.
</para>
<para>
Bochs is an open source project distributed under the GNU Lesser General
Public License. It was originally a commercial product, but in
March 2000 MandrakeSoft bought Bochs and committed it to Open Source.
Here is the press release.
</para>
<para>
Bochs now compiles/runs on many platforms. See the following list for
supported platforms and special notes:
</para>
<table><title>Supported platforms</title>
<tgroup cols=2 align=left colsep=1 rowsep=1>
<tbody>
<row>
@ -101,7 +195,7 @@ This is the top level file for the Bochs Users Manual.
</row>
</tbody>
</tgroup>
</table>
</table>
<para>
There's more! You can find more detailed testing information on the testing status page on bochs.sourceforge.net.
</para>
@ -117,21 +211,6 @@ This is the top level file for the Bochs Users Manual.
</section>
</chapter>
<!-- *************************************************************** -->
<chapter><title>Why do people use Bochs anyway?</title>
<para>
run more than one operating system without rebooting
</para>
<para>
OS developers use Bochs to system software without endangering
their development machine or rebooting.
</para>
<para>
students use Bochs to learn about how PC hardware works
hardware designers use bochs to help test new hardware
</para>
</chapter>
<!-- *************************************************************** -->
<chapter><title>FAQ</title>
<qandaset>