This document aims to provide instructions to create a gem5-compatible disk image containing the SPEC 2006 benchmark suite. It also demonstrates how to simulate the SPEC CPU2006 benchmarks using an example configuration script.
Creating a disk-image for SPEC 2006 requires the benchmark suite ISO file. More info about SPEC 2006 can be found https://www.spec.org/cpu2006/.
In this tutorial, we assume that the file CPU2006v1.0.1.iso contains the SPEC benchmark suite, and we provide the scripts that are made specifically for SPEC 2006 version 1.0.1. Throughout the this document, the root folder is src/spec-2006/. All commands should be run from this root folder.
The layout of the folder after the scripts are run is as follows,
spec-2006/ |___ gem5/ # gem5 folder | |___ disk-image/ | |___ build.sh # the script downloading packer binary and building the disk image | |___ shared/ | |___ spec-2006/ | |___ spec-2006-image/ | | |___ spec-2006 # the disk image will be generated here | |___ spec-2006.json # the Packer script | |___ CPU2006v1.0.1.iso # SPEC 2006 ISO (add here) | |___ vmlinux-4.19.83 # download link below | |___ README.md
First, to build m5 (required for interactions between gem5 and the guest):
git clone https://gem5.googlesource.com/public/gem5 cd gem5 cd util/m5 scons build/x86/out/m5
We use Packer, an open-source automated disk image creation tool, to build the disk image. In the root folder,
cd disk-image ./build.sh # the script downloading packer binary and building the disk image
An example script with a pre-configured system is available in the following directory within the gem5 repository:
gem5/configs/example/gem5_library/x86-spec-cpu2006-benchmarks.py
The example script specifies a system with the following parameters:
SimpleSwitchableProcessor (KVM for startup and TIMING for ROI execution). There are 2 CPU cores, each clocked at 3 GHz.MESI_Two_Level cache with 32 kB L1I and L1D size, and, 256 kB L2 size. The L1 cache(s) has associativity of 8, and, the L2 cache has associativity 16. There are 2 L2 cache banks.SingleChannelDDR4_2400 memory.x86-linux-kernel-4.19.83 and the disk image created from following the instructions in this README.md.CustomResource class to use the spec-2006 disk-image.The example script must be run with the X86_MESI_Two_Level binary. To build:
git clone https://gem5.googlesource.com/public/gem5 cd gem5 scons build/X86/gem5.opt -j<proc>
Once compiled, you may use the example configuration file to run the SPEC CPU2006 benchmark programs using the following command:
# In the gem5 directory build/X86/gem5.opt \ configs/example/gem5_library/x86-spec-cpu2006-benchmarks.py \ --image <path_to_built_spec-2006_disk_image> \ --partition <root_partition_to_mount> \ --benchmark <benchmark_program> \ --size <workload_size>
Description of the four arguments, provided in the above command are:
--partition "". Otherwise, pass an integer specifying the partition number. Set --partition 1 if the above instructions to build the disk-image are followed.--size are test, train and ref.The output directory, where the simulation statistics will be redirected to, will have a new folder named speclogs_<Day><Month><Date><Hour><Minute><Second>. The time is of execution is appended to avoid conflicts while coping the files. The output files, generated on the disk-image in the folder speclogs will be copied to this aforementioned directory.
Status of these benchmarks runs with respect to gem5-20, linux kernel version 4.19.83 and gcc version 7.5.0 can be found here.