EduMIPS64: all versions and old releases

# EduMIPS64 version 1.4.0

*3rd of May, 2026*

EduMIPS64 is a GPL MIPS64 Instruction Set Architecture (ISA) simulator and graphical debugger.

Maintainer: @lupino3

## Notes for this release

This is version 1.4.0 of EduMIPS64. Its codename is **WalkOfLife**, as the release is being
published on the same day as the 2026 Telethon Walk of Life in Catania, Italy.

Scientific research is the only hope for millions of people affected by rare genetic diseases.
Fondazione telethon (www.telethon.it) is a beacon of hope for them, as they raise funds
for targeted research projects.

Since 1.3.0 was released, the programming world was shaken by the advent of generative AI,
LLMs, coding agents and so on. The EduMIPS64 dev team embraced those technologies, and
many of the improvements between 1.3.0 and 1.4.0 have been AI-assisted or entirely AI-authored,
always under the supervision of maintainers.

Most of the efforts went into making the web UI usable, but some improvements - especially
in the core - are trickling down to the Swing UI (and CLI!).

For this release, we want to thank Prof. Davide Patti (@davidepatti) from UniCT for his efforts
to improve the simulator. Thanks, Davide!

## Highlights

### More ways to run EduMIPS64

This release adds a packaged Electron desktop application for Linux, macOS and Windows,
so EduMIPS64 can now run as a standalone offline app without asking users to install Java
or open the hosted web version.

### Stronger MIPS64 Release 6 support

Release 1.4.0 expands the simulator's ISA coverage with the three-operand `DMUL`, `DMOD`
and `DDIV` instructions from MIPS64 Release 6, and also finishes the transition of `DMULU`
to the modern syntax. This is an important compatibility improvement, but it is also the main
breaking change in the release: older code using the legacy `DMULU rs, rt` form must be updated
to the new `DMULU rd, rs, rt` syntax.

### Better core diagnostics and parser support

Several core improvements make assembly programs easier to write and debug. The parser now
accepts hexadecimal and binary literals consistently, understands label arithmetic in memory
operands, supports multiple labels on the same address, and reports missing parameters and other
common mistakes more clearly. On the execution side, synchronous exceptions now report both the
faulting instruction and the pipeline stage where the error occurred.

### Cache simulation without external tools

EduMIPS64 now ships with an embedded cache simulator that can be used instead of DineroIV.
Users can configure L1 instruction and data cache parameters directly inside EduMIPS64, which
makes cache-related experiments much easier to run in teaching environments.

### CLI and desktop improvements

The CLI received a substantial quality-of-life pass: quiet mode is now the default, `SYSCALL 5`
supports printf-like output, the shell shows clearer CPU status and help topics, and error
messages are friendlier. On the desktop side, 1.4.0 adds a dark mode toggle, a "Reset to defaults"
button in Settings, and fixes a few long-standing UI issues.

### More accurate simulation

This release also fixes a number of correctness issues in the simulator core, including branch
hazard handling with forwarding enabled, a stalled-register bug in `MOVF.D` / `MOVT.D`, stricter
pipeline consistency checks, and the incorrect ABI alias previously shown for register `R2`.

## Web UI

The web UI saw the largest amount of work in this cycle, but those changes are documented elsewhere.
Here we wanted to focus on the improvements that also matter to Swing, CLI and offline users.

## Other changes

We also added end-to-end regression coverage for every supported MIPS64 instruction, split the user
manual into UI-independent and UI-specific chapters, updated Gradle to 9.5.0, and refreshed several
dependencies for security and compatibility.

## The usual conclusion

If you find a bug, please open an issue on GitHub.
EduMIPS64 is hosted on GitHub: www.github.com/EduMIPS

- @hugmanrique and @jcarletta - reported 2 critical bugs and provided MIPS64 code to reproduce them,
- @lupino3
Added
- New Snapcraft packages for armhf (e.g.
Raspberry PI) and other architectures
Fixed
- Parser incorrectly interprets hexadecimal immediates (Issue #450)
- Some floating-point division cycles missing in Cycles window (Issue #646)
- Infinite RAW stall in floating-point code (Issue #304) (yes, again)
Changed
- Migrated to JDK (and JRE) 17