The Generic Simulation Framework: A Generic Simulation Framework for Performance Evaluation of Multiprocessor Architectures

Due to increased time-to-market constraints, development of systems composed of new hardand software becomes more and more challenging. Software development needs to start at a time when hardware is still under development and therefore needs to be simulated on general purpose workstations. If the hardware to be simulated is a parallel system composed of both hard- and software, powerful simulation tools are needed in order to be useful for effective development. With the Generic Simulation Framework, clock-cycle accurate simulation for parallel devices communicating with each other is possible. The tool presented in this work is designed to support different model techniques at various levels of abstraction (even inside the same simulation run) and is currently used for verification and design-space exploration in the design process of a parallel processor system. By adding hierarchical levels reflecting the physical structure of the simulation, and using certain synchronization algorithms, a speedup is tried to be achieved.