An object-oriented framework for execution-driven architectural simulation

This paper describes an object-oriented framework to support architectural simulation. The framework is combined with existing front-end tools for instruction tracing, and the resulting memory reference stream is used to drive event-driven simulation for interconnected objects that model the system under study. The framework has been integrated with three existing front-end tools for both uniprocessor and multiprocessor simulation. Experimental results are reported on the performance and overhead from combining different front-end tools with the framework. Although the overhead is larger than that for simpler cache simulators, the benefit of the framework is the flexibility gained with event-driven timing simulation for modeling architectures at the desired level of detail.