NGS:Collaborative Research: Structural and Composable Performance Simulation of Complex Systems

当今使用的最流行的计算系统建模方法是用顺序编程语言手写的单片模拟器，产生的模拟器难以重定目标或彼此集成。建议的解决方案，自由仿真环境(LSE)，根据与硬件结构非常相似的机器描述自动构建仿真器。这种与硬件的结构相似提供了对模型的信心，并使系统研究人员可以自由地考虑系统，而不是模拟器编码问题。LSE严格但通用的组件通信合同允许创建高度可重用的组件库，并简化了快速探索更奇特的设计的任务。LSE组件和描述可以由其他组件分层组成，并且可以存在于任何抽象级别(从统计到门级)。这种抽象级别的选择与部分规范支持相结合，允许迭代地细化模型；描述从一开始就生成全功能的模拟器，允许用户以增量方式指定和验证精确的模型。通过观察LSE的当前和未来用户，我们将不断改进框架，以在实践中达到这些功能的最有效设计。

The most prevalent modeling methodology for computational systems employed today,hand-writing monolithic simulators in sequential programming languages, yields simulators that aredifficult to retarget or integrate with one another. The proposed solution, the Liberty Simulation Environment (LSE), automatically constructs simulatorsfrom machine descriptions that closely resemble the structure of hardware. This structural resemblanceto the hardware provides confidence in the model and frees systems researchers to think about systems, notsimulator coding concerns. LSE's strict but general component communication contract enables the creationof highly reusable component libraries and eases the task of rapidly exploring ever more exotic designs. LSEcomponents and descriptions can be hierarchically composed of other components and can exist at any levelof abstraction (statistical to gate-level). This choice of abstraction level combined with partial specificationsupport allow models to be iteratively refined; descriptions generate fully functional simulators from thevery start, allowing users to specify and validate precise models incrementally. Through observing currentand future users of LSE, we will continually refine the framework to arrive at the most effective design ofthese features in practice.