The construction of a retargetable simulator for an architecture template

Systems in the domain of high-performance video signal processing are becoming more and more programmable. We suggest an approach to design such systems that involves measuring, via simulation, the performance of various architectures on which a set of applications are mapped. This approach requires a retargetable simulator for an architecture template. We describe the retargetable simulator that we constructed for a stream-oriented application-specific dataflow architecture. For each architecture instance of the architecture template, a specific simulator is derived in three steps: the architecture instance is constructed, an execution model is added, and the executable architecture is instrumented to obtain performance numbers. We used object oriented principles together with a high-level simulation mechanism to ensure retargetability and an efficient simulation speed. Finally we explain how a retargetable simulator can be encapsulated within an environment for automated design space exploration.