In this paper, we present work in progress in the development of a
Complete Machine Simulator
for the UltraSPARC, an implementation of the SPARC V9
architecture. The complexity of the UltraSPARC ISA presents many
challenges in developing a reliable and yet reasonably efficient
implementation of such a simulator. These include using a heavily
object-oriented implementation for the simulator modules and
infrastructure, caching of repeated computations for performance, adding
an OS (system call) emulation mode to the simulator and a variety of
testing strategies. An ultimate and critical goal in constructing such
an artifact is to successfully boot an existing operating system from
it; we describe techniques implemented so far, and outline the remaining
work and issues, in order to achieve this goal.
Contents
- paper Nov 2001 (106K, 11 pages)
Keywords
execution-driven simulation, SMP, complete machine simulation,
Sparc V9 ISA, UltraSPARC, object-oriented design