enabled

Boolean

A CHARON-AXP emulated CPU is configured with the "enabled" command enabling the high performance Advanced CPU Emulation mode ("ACE"). The ACE option optimizes the Alpha instruction interpretation and significantly improves performance. It also requires approximately twice the amount of host memory allocated by CHARON instance itself to store the optimized code (Note that 2Gb of host memory + the amount of Alpha memory emulated per each CHARON instance is required).

ACE optimization is performed dynamically during execution. It does not need to write optimized code back to disk, ACE provides its full capability instantly. The optimization does not compromise the Alpha instruction decoding; CHARON-AXP remains fully Alpha hardware compatible and completely transparent to the Alpha operating systems and applications.

This configuration setting enables the ACE mode if the CHARON-AXP license permits it. If this configuration setting is omitted from the CHARON-AXP configuration file and the license permits it, "true" is the default, otherwise "false" is the default.

Example:

set ace enabled = false

"set ace enabled=true" is ignored when the license does not permit ACE operation.

cpu_architecture

Text String

Specifies the architecture of the virtual Alpha CPU. Can be one of the following: EV4, EV45, EV5, EV56, EV6, EV67, EV68

Example:

set ace cpu_architecture = EV6

Refer to "Core Devices#Setting of a particular Alpha model" to find an appropriate value of the Alpha architecture per each Alpha model supported by CHARON-AXP. 

cache_size

Value

This parameter may affect Charon performance. Do not change this parameter until advised by Stromasys.

"cache_size" defines the amount of memory in megabytes allocated to the ACE cache.

Default value is 1GB (1024 MB).

Example:

set ace cache_size = 2048

This parameter may be changed for performance optimization in case of some guest OS specific tasks (see Enlarging ACE cache size section).

num_translators

Value

This parameter may affect Charon performance. Do not change this parameter until advised by Stromasys

"num_translators" defines the number of ACE translators.

Default value in most situations is number of I/O CPUs dedicated to CHARON (defined by "n_of_io_cpus" parameter) minus 1, but in some specific situations it may be set to some other value for better performance.

Example:

set ace num_translators = 4

host_options

Text String

This parameter may affect Charon performance. Do not change this parameter until advised by Stromasys.

"host_options" defines options of ACE (DIT) translator and code-generator. Those options affect Charon performance

Default settings are set to optimize performance for most guest OS (VMS and Tru64) usage profiles. However there are some profiles (for example OpenVMS compilation tasks) where the default settings do not provide optimal performance.

The following switches are available to user:

1. --fixed-variant=[X]

The value X can be one of three options: [-1, 0, 1]. This value defines the desired translation variant. Set -1 for dynamic (default) or 0 or 1 for the fixed number implemented by the translator.

2. --x64-optimize or --x64-nooptimize 

This switch enables translation optimizations (the default is to optimize).

Default parameters have been changed in Charon version 4.9 compared to previous versions (4.8 and below). If Charon system demonstrates lower performance after upgrade to version 4.9, please test the system with host_options switched to default 4.8 settings:

set ace host_options = "--fixed-variant=0 --x64-nooptimize"

Note that in this case the parameter "num_translators" must be set to the number of I/O CPUs dedicated to CHARON (see the "n_of_io_cpus" parameter). Also note that changing parameter "cache_size" can be an alternative solution too (see the section below).

set ace cache_size = 2048

set session n_of_io_cpus = <N>
set ace num_translators = <N>
set ace host_options = "--fixed-variant=0 --x64-nooptimize"

size

Numeric

Size of the emulated memory in MB.

set ram size = 2048

Hardware Model

RAM size (in MB)

Min

Max

Default

Increment

AlphaServer 400

64

1024

512

64

AlphaServer 800

256

8192

512

256

AlphaServer 1000

256

1024

512

256

AlphaServer 1000A

256

1024

512

256

AlphaServer 1200

256

32768

512

256

AlphaServer 2000

64

2048

512

64

AlphaServer 2100

64

2048

512

64

AlphaServer 4000

64

32768

512

64

AlphaServer 4100

64

32768

512

64

AlphaServer DS10, DS10L

64

32768

512

64

AlphaServer DS15

64

32768

512

64

AlphaServer DS20

64

32768

512

64

AlphaServer DS25

64

32768

512

64

AlphaServer ES40

64

32768

512

64

AlphaServer ES45

64

32768

512

64

AlphaServer GS80

256

65536

512

256

AlphaServer GS160

512

131072

512

512

AlphaServer GS320

1024

262144

1024

1024

container

Text string

Specifies a name for the file in which CHARON-AXP preserves the time and date during its “offline” period. This file also keeps some console parameters (such as the default boot device).

By default it is left unspecified.

Example:

set toy container="/Charon/my_virtual_system.dat"

It is recommended to specify the full path to the TOY file.

sync_to_host

Text string

Specifies whether and how the guest OS time is synchronized with the CHARON host time.

Syntax:

set TOY sync_to_host = "{as_vms | as_tru64 | as_is}"

Value description:

1. as_vms : If the guest OS is OpenVMS/AXP and its date and time must be set to the host's date and time each time it boots.

2. as_tru64 : If the guest OS is Tru64 UNIX and its date and time must be set to the host's date and time each time it boots.

3. as_is : If the TOY date and time must be set to the host's UTC date and time.

Example:

set TOY sync_to_host = "as_vms"

To synchronize the guest OS with TOY, use the following commands (from "SYSTEM"/"root" account):

1. on OpenVMS/AXP: $ set time

2. on Tru64 UNIX: # date -u `consvar -g date | cut -f 3 -d ' '`

The default value is "not specified" - it means that by default CHARON does not synchronize its guest OS time with the CHARON host time but collects date and time from the file specified with "container" parameter.

If "sync_to_host" parameter is specified there is no need to specify "container" parameter in addition.

container

Text string

Specifies the name of a file in which CHARON-AXP stores an intermediate state of its Flash ROM. This state includes, for example, most of the console parameters.

By default it is left unspecified.

it is recommended to specify the full path to this file

Example:

set rom container="/Charon/my_virtual_system.rom"

system_name

Text string

Allows changing the system name

Example:

set rom system_name="Alpha Server 1000 4/200"

Refer to Core Devices#Setting of a particular Alpha model to find an appropriate value of the Alpha system name per each Alpha model supported by CHARON-AXP

system_serial_number

Text string

Allows changing the system serial number

Example:

set rom system_serial_number = NY12345678

Any sequence of characters can be used as a serial number. Sequences longer than 16 characters are truncated.

Serial Numbers should be according to DEC standard: 10 characters. First two characters are capital letters, remaining 8 characters are decimal digits.

By default it is set to SN01234567

dsrdb[n]

Numeric

DSRDB - Dynamic System Recognition Data Block. These parameters allow changing the emulated hardware model type.

dsrdb[0] stands for SMM - System Marketing Model.

Example:

set rom dsrdb[0]=1090

Core Devices#Setting of a particular Alpha model describes connection between "dsrdb" parameter and the rest of the parameters defining an exact Alpha model - including SMM.

version

Text string

Sets Console and PAL code versions in the following way:

SRM Console version to X.Y-Z:
set rom version[0] = x.y-z

OpenVMS PAL code version to X.Y-Z:
set rom version[1] = x.y-z

Tru64 UNIX PAL code version to X.Y-Z:
set rom version[2] = x.y-z

Example:

set rom version[0] = 7.3-1 version[1] = 1.98-104 version[2] = 1.92-105

clock_period

Numeric

Specifies period of interval timer, in microseconds. Only two values are supported:

1. 10000 (which corresponds to 100Hz interval timer)

2. 1000 (which corresponds to 1000Hz interval timer)

By default it is set to 10000.

set ISA clock_period=1000

set EISA clock_period=1000