Processor performance modeling using symbolic simulation

We propose a method of analytically characterizing processor performance as a function of circuit latencies. In our approach, we modify traditional simulation to use variables instead of fixed latencies for the internal functional units. The simulation engine then algebraically computes execution times, and the result is a mathematical equation which characterizes the Performance space across numerous processor configurations. We discuss the computational complexity issues of this approach and show that instruction chunking and simple equation redundancy checking can make this approach feasible-we can model a large multi-dimenstional design space with thousands to millions of design parameter combinations for about 10x the simulation time of a single conventional simulation run. We demonstrate our approach by exploring two different machines: a traditional MIPS-style in-order pipeline and the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3000.