[paranoidrobot]

I was once shown a dos-based CPU simulator back in the mid/late 90s.

From memory it showed instruction decode, execution, cache and memory.

Unfortunately I've never been able to find it, because all the google results are about running DOS games and/or DOSBox.

[sitkack]

It is probably on one of the SIMTEL shovelware cdroms. https://archive.org/details/SIMTEL_0692

A search engine won't help you, but a local llm might.

[paranoidrobot]

Good suggestion, thanks.

ChatGPT came up with what I thought was a halucination: "CPU Sim".

After some searching, I found a Facebook post[1] with a photo of it running. That looks mostly like what I recall. The screenshot is from a 1987 version.

I can also find references to a Windows version, but no copies of either. I thought there were more features to it, but perhaps I'm misremembering or I've also thinking of Mikrosim that Tomte mentions in the sibling comment.

[1] https://www.facebook.com/RMUserGroup/posts/pfbid0uVrCYMsWmJa...

[Tomte]

Mikrosim maybe? The name is because it simulates microcode. That was a huge a-ha moment for me in school.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MikroSim

http://www.mikrocodesimulator.de/index_eng.php

[paranoidrobot]

Good find, thanks.

That one is looking more familiar the more screenshots I see of it, but I think I might be mixing memories of two programs - this, and "CPU Sim" which I mention in a reply to the sibling comment.