SimEng is a framework for building modern, cycle-accurate processor
simulators. Its goals are to be:
- Fast, typically 4-5X faster than gem5
- Easy to use and modify to model desired microarchitecture
configurations. New cores can be configured in just a few hours
- Scalable, from simple scalar microarchitectures up to the most
sophisticated, superscalar, out-of-order designs
- Capable of supporting a wide range of instruction set
architectures (ISAs), starting with Armv8 but eventually including
RISC-V, x86, POWER, etc.
- Accurate, aiming for simulated cycle times being within 5-10% of
real hardware
- Open source, with a permissive license to enable collaboration
across academia and industry
SimEng places an emphasis on performance and ease of use, whilst
maintaining a clean, modern, simple and well-documented code base.
For example, the current out-of-order (OoO) model is implemented
in around 10,000 lines of simple C++, with another 9,000 lines or
so implementing the specifics of the Armv8 ISA, and around 13,000
lines of code in the accompanying test suite. SimEng should be
simple to read and understand, making it ideal to modify to your
requirements and include it in your projects.
Invocation example:
# simeng /usr/share/SimEng-0.9.4/configs/a64fx.yaml
ef8e6a516c