Trace-Driven Simulation of Decoupled Architectures

The development of accurate trace-driven simulat ion models has become a key act iv i ty i n the design of new high-performance computer sys tems. Tracedriven s imulat ion is fas t ) enabling analysis of the behaviour of large application and benchmark programs on a new computer sys tem. W e describe a trace-driven s imulat ion engine for a decoupled processor architecture. W e report on t w o ways of generating ef ic ient execution traces of real programs for this engine: profiler-assisted and compiler-assisted, and also on the use of synthet ic traces. Results are reported f o r ezecution on the s imulation engine of traces f r o m Linpack and one of the Perfect Club benchmarks, as wel l as synthesized traces.