Architectural resource requirements of contemporary benchmarks: a wish list

A wish list of prototype designs of large-scale superscalar processors is presented. The author investigates the processor and memory system needs for a class of contemporary benchmarks taken from the SPEC89 benchmark suite. In these processors, the number and type of function units are among the most important design decisions. Data are presented for the requirements of these resources. For memory systems, data are presented suggesting the required cache designs. The requirements suggest upper limits on the resources needed for efficient ulta-high-level monolithic processors.