"Free" emulator?

[William Gatliff <gatliff at haulpak dot com>]

Guys:

Please excuse the obvious ambitiousness of the following question, of
course.  :^)

IMO, the GNU tools are already the best choice going for embedded
systems development, at least for the platforms they support.

One thing that is lacking, however, is a source for a free emulator.
(That's "free" in the GNU sense, not in $$$).  I for one would love to
have all the schematics and firmware for my emulator(s), because then I
could fix it (them).  :^)  I also have a few nifty features in mind...

So, here's a few questions:

  1. Is there a gcc analogue in the emulator world?  In other words, is
     it possible to provide a reasonably portable hardware emulation
     architecture suitable for distribution in the same way that other
     free tools are?  I'm thinking along the lines of a common base
     hardware setup, with interchangable pods and firmware for the
     architecture specific bits.
  2. Would hard-core GNU users like to have an open emulator platform,
     or would we prefer to continue to get these critical tools from
     proprietary vendors?
  3. What are other useful candidates for open development tools, i.e.
     oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, etc.?
  4. Would anyone be seriously interested in participating in such a
     project?  How about anyone with emulator design experience?
  5. Are there any emulator companies that would like to participate in
     this?
  6. Am I completely off my rocker?

Any comments are welcome.  Of course, if you think I need therapy, then
feel free to respond to me directly.  :^)

b.g.

--
William A. Gatliff
Senior Design Engineer
Komatsu Mining Systems
To teach is to learn.




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