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Using the M5 Simulator ISCA 2006 Tutorial Sunday June 18th, 2006

Introduction

This half-day tutorial will introduce participants to the M5 simulator system. M5 is a modular platform for computer system architecture research, encompassing system-level architecture as well as processor microarchitecture.

We will be releasing version 2.0 of M5 in conjunction with this tutorial. Features new in 2.0 include:

  • Multiple ISA support (Alpha, MIPS, and SPARC)
  • An all-new, execute-in-execute out-of-order SMT CPU timing model, with no SimpleScalar license encumbrance
  • All-new, message-oriented interface for memory system objects, designed to simplify the development of non-bus interconnects
  • More extensive Python integration and scripting support

Because the primary focus of the M5 development team has been simulation of network-oriented server workloads, M5 incorporates several features not commonly found in other simulators.

  • Full-system simulation using unmodified Linux 2.4/2.6, HP Tru64 5.1, or L4Ka::Pistachio) (Alpha only at this time... coming in the future for MIPS and SPARC)
  • Detailed timing of I/O device accesses and DMA operations
  • Accurate, deterministic simulation of multiple networked systems
  • Flexible, script-driven configuration to simplify specification of complex multi-system configurations
  • Included network workloads such as Apache, NAT, and NFS
  • Support for storing results from multiple simulations in a unified database (e.g. MySQL) for automated reporting and graph generation

M5 also integrates a number of other desirable features, including pervasive object orientation, multiple interchangeable CPU models, an event-driven memory system model, and multiprocessor capability. Additionally, M5 is also capable of application-only simulation using syscall emulation.

M5 is freely distributable under a BSD-style license, and does not depend on any commercial or restricted-license software.

Intended Audience

Researchers in academia or industry looking for a free, open-source, full-system simulation environment for processor, system, or platform architecture studies. Please register via the ISCA 2006 web page.

Tentative Outline

  • M5 structure
    • Object structure
      • Intro to SimObjects
      • Object builder
      • Configuration language
      • Specialization using C++ templates
      • Object serialization (checkpointing)
    • Events
  • CPU models
    • Simple functional model
    • Detailed out-of-order model
    • Sampling and warm-up support
  • Memory & I/O system overview
    • Cache models
    • Interconnect models (busses, point-to-point networks)
    • Coherence support
    • I/O modeling
      • Programmed I/O (uncached accesses)
      • DMA I/O
    • Ethernet model
      • NIC device models
      • Linux driver
      • Link layer model
  • Full-system modeling
    • Building disk images
    • Console and PAL code
    • Running benchmarks via system init scripts
    • Target kernel introspection support
  • Statistics
    • Built-in statistics types
    • Adding new statistics
    • Using the database back end
      • Setting up a results database
      • Using scripts to generate reports and graphs from the database
  • Debugging techniques
    • Built-in debugging support
      • Tracing
      • Runtime checking
      • Gdb hooks
    • Debugging target code (including kernels) using remote gdb
  • ISA description language
    • Adding your own instructions to the ISA
    • Adding support for new ISAs

Speakers

  • Steven K. Reinhardt is an associate professor in the EECS Department at the University of Michigan, and a principal developer of M5. He received a BS from Case Western Reserve University and an MS from Stanford University, both in electrical engineering, and a PhD in computer science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. While at Wisconsin, he was the principal developer of the Wisconsin Wind Tunnel parallel architecture simulator.
  • Nathan L. Binkert received his Ph.D. candidate from the EECS Department at the University of Michigan, and a principal developer of M5. He received a BSE in electrical engineering and MS in computer science both from the University of Michigan. As an intern at Compaq VSSAD, he was a principal developer of the ASIM simulator, currently in use at Intel and is currently with Arbor Networks.
  • Ronald G. Dreslinski is a Ph.D. student in the EECS Department at the University of Michigan, and a developer of M5's memory system. He received a BSE in electrical engineering, a BSE in computer engineering, and a MSE in computer science and engineering all from the University of Michigan.
  • Kevin T. Lim is a Ph.D. student in the EECS Department at the University of Michigan, and the developer of M5's detailed CPU model. He received a BSE in computer engineering and an MSE in computer science and engineering from the University of Michigan.
  • Ali G. Saidi is a Ph.D. candidate in the EECS Department at the University of Michigan, and wrote much of the platform code for Linux full-system simulation. He received a BS in electrical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin and an MSE in computer science and engineering from the University of Michigan.

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