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highly reproducible, it also requires a very large storage space. On the other hand, an execution-driven simulation reads a program and simulates the execution of machine instructions on the fly. A program file is typically several magnitudes smaller than a trace file. However, the execution-driven simulation is much slower than the trace-driven simulation because it has to process each instruction one-by-one and update all statuses of the microarchitecture components involved. Thus, the selection of input types for simulation is a trade-off between space and time. In particular, a very detailed trace for a highly accurate simulation requires a very large storage space, whereas a very accurate execution-driven simulation takes a very long time to execute all instructions in the program.
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levels of cache memory incurs very little cost when comparing with the fabrication of a prototyping chip. The researchers can also play with several configurations of the cache hierarchy using different cache models in the simulator instead of having to fabricate a new chip every time they want to test something different.
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Microarchitecture simulators are deployed for a variety of purposes. It allows researchers to evaluate their ideas without the need to fabricate a real microprocessor chip, which is both expensive and time consuming. For instance, simulating a microprocessor with thousand of cores along with multiple
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A trace-driven simulation reads a fixed sequence of trace records from a file as an input. These trace records usually represent memory references, branch outcomes, or specific machine instructions, among others. While a trace-driven simulation is known to be comparatively fast and its results are
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only models the execution of a program on a microprocessor through the eyes of an instruction scheduler along with a coarse timing of instruction execution. Most computer science classes in computer architecture with hand-on experiences adopt the instruction set simulators as tools for teaching,
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Another usage of the microarchitecture simulator is in education. Given that a course in computer architecture teaches students many different microprocessor's features and its architectures, the microarchitecture simulator is ideal for modeling and experimenting with different features and
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Microarchitecture simulation can be classified into multiple categories according to input types and level of details. Specifically, the input can be a trace collected from an execution of program on a real microprocessor (so called trace-driven simulation) or a program itself (so called
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architectures over the course of a semester. For example, students may start with a microarchitecture simulator that models a simple microprocessor design at the beginning of a semester. As the semester progresses, additional features, such as
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Apart from input types, the level of details can also be used to classify the simulation. In particular, a piece of software that simulates a microprocessor executing a program on a cycle-by-cycle basis is known as
124:, can be modeled and added to the simulator as they are introduced in the classroom. Microarchitecture simulator provides the flexibility of reconfiguration and testing with minimal costs.
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Tullsen, D. M. (1996). Simulation and
Modeling of a Simultaneous Multithreading Processor. In Proceedings of the 22nd Annual Computer Measurement Group Conference.
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Skadron, K. (1996). A Microprocessor Survey Course for
Learning Advanced Computer Architecture. In Proceedings of the 2002 ACM SIGCSE Conference, 152-156.
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whereas the cycle-accurate simulators are deployed mostly for research projects due to both complexities and resource consumption.
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Austin, T., Larson, E., & Ernst, D. (2002). SimpleScalar: An
Infrastructure for Computer System Modeling.
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Cmelik, R. F., & Keppel, D. (1994). Shade: A Fast
Instruction-Set Simulator for Execution Profiling.
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Uhlig, R. A., & Mudge, T. N. (2004). Trace-Driven Memory
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Burger, D., & Austin, T. M. (1997). The
Simplescalar Tool Set Version 2.0.
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For system-level simulation of computer hardware, please refer to the
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D. Burger and T. M. Austin. The SimpleScalar Tool Set, Version 2.0.
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education. It is a tool for modeling the design and behavior of a
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Organization and Design: The Hardware/Software Interface
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128:Examples
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