NePSim: a network processor simulator with a power evaluation framework

This article presents NePSim, an integrated system that includes a cycle-accurate architecture simulator, an automatic formal verification engine, and a parameterizable power estimator for NPs consisting of clusters of multithreaded execution cores, memory controllers, I/O ports, packet buffers, and high-speed buses. To perform concrete simulation and provide reliable performance and power analysis, we defined our system to comply with Intel´s IXP1200 processor specification because academia has widely adopted it as a representative model for NP research.