Head to the new download site, https://research.microsoft.com/accelerator.

New features include:

• Async expression evaluation, including cancellation of in-progress calls
• 8-byte doubles, via the new DoubleParallelArray type (currently supported in the multicore target only)
• Evaluate() is back
• Parameters - new FloatParallelArrayParam and related types enable late binding of data to expression trees
• DirectX9 target introduces TextureMemory(), FromFloatTextureMemory() and FromFloat4TextureMemory(), avoiding the copy back to CPU memory if the input data is already on the GPU ahead of evaluation, or if the result data will be consumed by other GPU-side code.

This new CTP also addresses a number of bugs and represents considerable internal improvemnts in the core and targets.

The download site also has links to great blog posts on calling Accelerator from F# and from C# 4.0 Lambdas... LINQ to Accelerator!

Check out Joel's blog at https://callvirt.net/blog/entry.aspx?entryid=b9a94d0c-761a-4d6b-bc2f-d6a5f8c1a4a7 for the details.

Barry

After delving deep into the world of mobile and embedded applications as part of the DeviceEmulator project, I decided to learn a very different style of software... video games.  Instead of squeezing bytes and milliwatts out of code, I now worry about framerates, real-time audio data decompression and of course, piracy.

As we move close to tech-transfer, we are growing the team.  Here is the job description text: 

Join an incubation team in MSR is working on a project aimed at high-end PC video games.

We are looking for someone with excellent kernel and driver development experience and debugging expertise, ready to take ownership of multiple product features. Areas of responsibility may include: game content protection, 3D graphics acceleration, OS/driver development, hardware prototyping, device firmware development, and compilers. Strong assembly, C, C++, and debugging skills are required along with a proven track record of shipping product. DirectX experience and PC video game development experience are not required, but would be a plus.

The project is expected to transfer into a high-profile product group and rapidly accelerate to a V1 release. This position would follow the project into the product group.

To apply, visit https://members.microsoft.com/careers/search/details.aspx?JobID=A1E89CF7-20D7-464F-91E5-692D9EAF7B1B&start=1&interval=10&SortCol=DatePosted, or search for job code # 204427 at https://www.microsoft.com/career.

If the emulator is running without a skin, or with a skin that predates the LED feature, then the emulator displays the LED as a blinking box in its title bar.  However, you can integrate it into the skin and make it look like a real LED.  The .zip file attached to this post contains a sample skin I put together - it is a PocketPC 2003 skin, updated so the power button blinks.

Behind the scenes, the LED is represented in the skin XML as a button, just like the buttons used to send keystrokes into the emulator.  The difference is that the LED contains an extra XML attribute:

isNotificationLED="true"

The "up" skin bitmap is used to display the LED in the ON setting.  The "down" skin bitmap is used to display the LED in the ON setting.  Note that skin buttons with isNotificationLED="true" are no longer buttons that can send keystrokes, so the onPressAndHold and onClick attributes are ignored.

pocketpc_2003_nled.zip

It isn't time to announce the project yet, but it is time to hire another developer.  The job description is up on microsoft.com at https://members.microsoft.com/careers/search/details.aspx?JobID=A1E89CF7-20D7-464F-91E5-692D9EAF7B1B&start=1&interval=10&SortCol=DatePosted.  If that link doesn't work, visit https://www.microsoft.com/careers/ and enter 204427 as the job code value.

So if you're qualified, and are itching to know just what it is I'm up to, here's a chance to come join the team!

 1)  Define LOGGING_ENABLED to 1 in include\emulator.h, to compile in debug logging in the JIT.  Several variables control logging:

- LogInstructionStart - begin logging once 'n' guest instructions have been executed

- the LogIf() macro specifies the conditions under which logging happens.  The expression "(Cpu.CPSR.Bits.Mode == UserModeValue && InstructionCount >= LogInstructionStart)" logs only instructions executed in usermode, and only after LogInstructionStart instructions have executed.  This is a handy trigger, as it filters out interrupt handlers.  JIT logging will dump the disassembled ARM opcodes and register state, showing you a single-step trace of your code as it runs.

2)  In cpus\arm\armcpu.cpp, edit g_fOptimizeCode to be 0/false instead of 1/true.  This disables cross-instruction optimizations such as the code that recognizes ARMFlushICacheLines and converts it to a no-op.  It also inserts a call to SingleStepHelper() between guest instructions, to poll for single-step requests from the hardware debugger interface.

3)  Write your own low-level debugger - create an instance of IDeviceEmulatorDebugger from another process, and you can read/write memory, read/write registers, break in, single-step, set breakpoints, etc.  This is the interface that the Platform Builder eXDI hardware debugger connects to.  See cpus\arm\debugger.cpp for the implementation of this interface - it's quite straightforward.

4)  If you are changing the JIT for some reason, and it stops working, open cpus\arm\armcpu.cpp and check out the comment block above "//#define GOOD_EMULATOR 1" - this feature allows you to run a known-good DeviceEmulator.exe and a known-bad DeviceEmulator.exe in lock-step with each other.  Each one steps forward by one guest instruction, then they compare results and if there is a difference, assert.  Please note that the two emulators quickly diverge if you enable guest hardware interrupts, as interrupt delivery is not slaved between the two emulators - timer interrupts will arrive at different times.

Barry

The service pack adds eXDI hardware-level debugging into the Platform Builder 6.0 debugger, which is great news!  Even better, is that the eXDI driver for the DeviceEmulator shipped as sample source code.  Check out %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Platform Builder\6.00\cepb\EXDI2\SAMPLEDRIVER\KdStubDe.  This is an updated version of the eXDI driver I demoed at PDC last year using PB 5.0.

The DEComInterfaces.idl declares the COM interface to the DeviceEmulator, and lurking inside it is IDeviceEmulatorDebugger.  The KdStubDe translates eXDI method calls into IDeviceEmulatorDebugger calls, giving you the ability to debug OS images even if no KITL/KdStub is present, and to debug all of the code in the image, including interrupt handlers and boot code.

Please do take time to read the README.TXT to get familiar with the limitations of DeviceEmulatorEXDI... there are a few gotchas where the emulator's implementation makes hardware-level debugging a bit challenging.  ;-)

Along the way, I have been learning about GPUs and 3D graphics programming.  This is a new area for me - I have worked in the VB runtime, WOW64 (which was focused on server scenarios) and DeviceEmulator (mobile scenarios), and none of those had much need for DirectX and D3D.

The Accelerator team have been very helpful in my crash course in GPU programming.  If you haven't heard of Accelerator, please do check it out - it is a set of libraries for .NET that makes it straightfoward to write data-parallel code that downloads and runs on the GPU hardware.  You need to know nothing about GPUs, only managed arrays.  Their original paper is: 

David Tarditi, Sidd Puri, Jose Oglesby. "Accelerator: simplified programming of graphics-processing units for general-purpose uses via data-parallelism",  Technical Report MSR-TR-2004-184, Microsoft Corporation, December, 2005.

You can download Accelerator here.  They're hiring, by the way, if you have a passion for concurrent programming and experience in this field.  I'm looking forward to multi-core CPU version - Accelerator gives you a new/different way of efficiently spreading computation across your available computing resources.

ENU: https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=dd567053-f231-4a64-a648-fea5e7061303

CHS: https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=zh-cn&FamilyID=dd567053-f231-4a64-a648-fea5e7061303

CHT: https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=zh-tw&FamilyID=dd567053-f231-4a64-a648-fea5e7061303

DEU: https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=de&FamilyID=dd567053-f231-4a64-a648-fea5e7061303

ESN: https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=es&FamilyID=dd567053-f231-4a64-a648-fea5e7061303

FRA: https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=fr&FamilyID=dd567053-f231-4a64-a648-fea5e7061303

ITA: https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=it&FamilyID=dd567053-f231-4a64-a648-fea5e7061303

JPN: https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=ja&FamilyID=dd567053-f231-4a64-a648-fea5e7061303

KOR: https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=ko&FamilyID=dd567053-f231-4a64-a648-fea5e7061303

Congrats to the DeviceEmulator team!