Multiprocessor enhancements of the SimpleScalar tool set

This paper describes multiprocessor enhancements of the SimpleScalar tool set. The core simulation code has been modified to support multiprocessing, and a run-time library has been introduced for thread creation and synchronization. Measurements using the SPLASH-2 parallel benchmark suite [13] indicate that the multiprocessor enhancements introduce simulation overhead of 30%-50% relative to the original uniprocessor simulator. An idealized multiprocessor cache simulator has also been developed, and a dynamic visualization tool for cache coherence has also been developed. These multiprocessor enhancements are available at the WWW site for the SimpleScalar tool set.