PTLsim: A Cycle Accurate Full System x86-64 Microarchitectural Simulator

In this paper, we introduce PTLsim, a cycle accurate full system x86-64 microprocessor simulator and virtual machine. PTLsim models a modern superscalar out of order x86-64 processor core at a configurable level of detail ranging from RTL-level models of all key pipeline structures, caches and devices up to full-speed native execution on the host CPU. Unlike other microarchitectural simulators, PTLsim targets the real commercially available x86 ISA, rather than a discontinued architecture with limited tools and an uncertain future. PTLsim supports several flavors: a single threaded userspace version and a full system version providing an SMT model and the infrastructure for multi-core support. We first describe what it takes to perform cycle accurate modeling of a complete x86 machine at the muop (micro-operation) level, along with the challenges and requirements for effective full system multi-processor capable simulation. We then describe the internal architecture of full system PTLsim and how it interacts with the Xen hypervisor and PTLsim´s native mode co-simulation technology. We experimentally evaluate PTLsim´s real world accuracy by configuring it like an AMD Athlon 64 machine before running a demanding full system client-server networked benchmark inside PTLsim. We compare the statistics generated by our model with the actual numbers from the real processor to demonstrate PTLsim is accurate to within 5% across all major parameters. We provide a discussion of prior simulation tools, along with their strengths and weaknesses. We describe why PTLsim´s x86 focus is highly relevant, and we use our full system simulation results to demonstrate the pitfalls of userspace only simulation. Finally, we conclude by detailing future work