Computer architecture simulator

In computer science, a computer architecture simulator, or an architectural simulator, is a piece of software to model computer devices (or components) to predict outputs and performance metrics on a given input. An architectural simulator can model a target microprocessor only (see instruction set simulator), or an entire computer system (see full system simulator) including a processor, a memory system, and I/O devices.

Categories

Computer architecture simulators can be classified into many different categories depending on the context.

• Scope: micro-architecture vs. full-system simulators. The modeled scope could be only one microprocessor or the whole computer system.
• Detail: functional vs. timing (or performance) simulators. Functional simulators emphasize achieving the same function as the modeled components(What to be done.), while timing simulators strive to accurately reproduce the performance/timing features (When is done.) of the targets in addition to their functionalities.
• Input: trace-driven (or event-driven) vs. execution-driven simulators. Traces/Events are pre-recorded streams of instructions with some fixed input. Execution-driven simulators allow dynamic change of instructions to be executed depending on different input data.

Benefits of simulators

Architectural simulators are very useful for the following purposes:

• evaluating different hardware designs without building costly physical hardware systems.
• enabling the opportunities to access non-existing computer components or systems
• obtaining detailed performance metrics: A single execution of simulators can often generate a large set of performance data.
• debugging: Debugging on real hardware typically require re-booting and re-running the code to reproduce the problems. In contrast, some simulators have a fully controlled environment and allow software developers to run code backward once an error is detected.

Implementations

Some popular architectural simulators include:

• CPU Sim, a Java application that allows the user to design and create a simple architecture and instruction set and then run programs of instructions from the set through simulation
• M5: a freely available academic full system simulator developed at the University of Michigan
• MikroSim: a Microcode programmable CPU simulator
• OVPsim [1]: a freely available full system simulator
• PTLsim, a cycle accurate x86-64 full system simulator
• SESC:a cycle-accurate architectural simulator
• Simics: a full system simulator
• SimpleScalar: a microarchitectural simulator suite
• MARSSx86: Micro-ARchitectural and System Simulator for x86-based Systems
• GEMS [2]: General Execution-driven Multiprocessor Simulator

See also

• Instruction set simulator

External links

• SimpleScalar Official Website
• The Archer virtual infrastructure for computer architecture simulation
• "Mikrocodesimulator MikroSim 2010". 0/1-SimWare. http://www.mikrocodesimulator.de/index_eng.php. Retrieved 2010-12-06. 

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