Multiprocessor system evaluation has traditionally been based
on direct-execution based  Execution-Driven Simulations (EDS).
In such environments, the processor component of the system
is not fully modeled.
With wide-issue superscalar processors being the
norm in today's multiprocessor nodes, there is an urgent
need for modeling the processor accurately.  However, using
direct-execution to model a superscalar processor has
been considered an open problem. Hence, current approaches
model the processor by interpreting the application
executable. Unfortunately, this approach can be slow.
<p>
In this paper, we propose a novel direct-execution framework
that allows accurate simulation of wide-issue superscalar processors
without the need for code interpretation. This is achieved with the
aid of an {\em Interface Window} between the front-end and the
architectural simulator, that buffers the necessary
information. This eliminates the need for full-fledged
instruction emulation. Overall, this approach enables
detailed yet fast EDS of superscalar processors. Finally,
we evaluate the framework and show good performance for uni- and
multi-processor configurations.


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The author's web site:

<a href="http://iacoma.cs.uiuc.edu">iacoma.cs.uiuc.edu</a>