Simulating a $2M commercial server on a $2K PC

As dependence on database management systems and Web servers increases, so does the need for them to run reliably and efficiently-goals that rigorous simulations can help achieve. Execution-driven simulation models system hardware. These simulations capture actual program behavior and detailed system interactions. The authors have developed a simulation methodology that uses multiple simulations, pays careful attention to the effects of scaling on workload behavior, and extends Virtutech AB´s Simics full system functional simulator with detailed timing models. The Wisconsin Commercial Workload Suite contains scaled and tuned benchmarks for multiprocessor servers, enabling full-system simulations to run on the PCs that are routinely available to researchers.