CMPUT 229 - Computer Organization and Architecture I

Setting up the RARS Simulator on a macOS machine

This currently only maybe required for ARM "M Chip" Macs, read below for more info. If you have an x86 "Intel" Mac, see the usual macOS instructions.

Support for ARM chips has recently been improved and therefore we recomend even if you have an M chip to follow the x86 macOS Method 1 using Homebrew. If you run into issues later on (especially with MMIO) then attempt Method 1 here and if all else fails Method 2 here.

Method 1

1. Install UTM on your Mac.
2. Download Ubuntu. Make sure you get the ARM version.
3. Once Ubuntu is installed, install Java inside of Ubuntu by installing the default-jre package.
4. Follow the linux install instructions in your Ubuntu VM.

Method 2

This method doesn't currently work as well, because the GUI is all messed up with black areas that are difficult/impossible to see.

1. Follow the instructions for Intel Macs.
2. Either brew install --cask xquartz or download and install XQuartz.
3. Probably reboot?
4. Start the XQuartz terminal and then run RARS from inside the XQuartz terminal.