Trace-driven simulation of decoupled architectures

The development of accurate trace-driven simulation models has become a key activity in the design of new high-performance computer systems. Trace-driven simulation is fast, enabling analysis of the behaviour of large application and benchmark programs on a new computer system. We describe a trace-driven simulation engine for a decoupled processor architecture. We report on two ways of generating efficient execution traces of real programs for this engine: profiler-assisted and compiler-assisted, and also on the use of synthetic traces. Results are reported for execution on the simulation engine of traces from Linpack and one of the Perfect Club benchmarks, as well as synthesized traces.<>