qemu-system-sparc64 instruction set architecture compatibility (sparc v8+ vs sparc v9)

From: CKIM <sgplap30@gmail.com>
To: qemu-devel@nongnu.org
Cc: cheolyon38@naver.com
Subject: qemu-system-sparc64 instruction set architecture compatibility (sparc v8+ vs sparc v9)
Date: Sun, 4 Apr 2021 20:07:24 +0800	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <33e27175-688d-3f9e-d999-cda18122f3d9@gmail.com> (raw)

Hello,

I'm not sure if this is right mailing list for this question but I 
really appreciate if someone can answer to my question.

I have very old binary (testgen) which was built from old sparc station. 
(no source code)

If I run "file testgen", I get the following.
ELF 32-bit MSB executable SPARC32PLUS Version 1, V8+ Required, 
UltraSPARC1 Extensions Required, statically linked, not stripped

I want to run this binary from qemu as the sparc station (sun4u sparc 
SUNW,Sun-Fire-V440) is very unstable.

Can QEMU (qemu-system-sparc64) support sparc32 application with v8+ ?

I tried to install a few packages listed at 
https://wiki.qemu.org/Documentation/Platforms/SPARC

I was able to install most of sun4m / sun4u guests listed in the wiki 
and network setup was also ok but none of them could run the "testgen" 
binary.

I always get "Cannot execute ELF binary" error message.

example with QEMU 5.2.0 version:
qemu-system-sparc64 -m 512 -drive 
file=disk_image_netbsd64.raw,format=raw,index=0, \
-net nic,macaddr=52:54:00:fa:ce:10,model=e1000 \
-net tap -nographic \
-cdrom NetBSD-9.1-sparc64.iso \
-boot d

I found the cpu type is set "TI-UltraSparc-IIi" as default.

I couldn't find any option related to the instruction set architecture. 
(qemu-system-sparc64 --help)

If I try the "niagara" machine example (OpenSPARCT1_Arch.1.5.tar.bz2), I 
get:

# isainfo -v
64-bit sparcv9 applications
         asi_blk_init
32-bit sparc applications
         asi_blk_init v8plus div32 mul32

It shows v8plus explicitly so I guess the niagara guest should be able 
to run my "testgen" binary but I couldn't find any information about the 
network setup for the OpenSPARCT1_Arch.1.5.tar.bz2. So I can't copy my 
project files onto the guest machine.

My Sun physical server shows:
uname -a
SunOS sinuc035 5.8 Generic_117350-62 sun4u sparc SUNW,Sun-Fire-V440

I understand the sparc v7, v8, v8+, v9 are not chip architectures but 
they are Instruction Set Architectures so I think the binary could run 
on sun4u or sun4v, niagara ...

Can anyone know how to run the sparc32 v8+ binary from QEMU ?
Is it something the iso file need to be changed or qemu issue?

I appreciate if any useful info or hint. Thanks!

Best Regards,
CKIM