Acquisition and evaluation of long DDR2-SDRAM access sequences

Trace driven simulation is extensively used in memory system evaluation. Traditional measurement equipment such as logic analyzers currently lack of the capability to record long memory access sequences (e.g. multiple seconds or even entire benchmark runs) due to their limited sampling depth, without altering system behavior. This paper presents a system, that is capable of recording long access sequences in realtime without affecting system operation. For the first time, a classification of the SPEC CPU2000 benchmark suite along main memory access criteria is provided. Furthermore the impact of shared memory graphics on system performance affecting future system simulation methodology is investigated.