Facile: A Language and Compiler For High-Performance Processor Simulators

摘要

Architectural simulators are essential tools for computer architecture and systems research and development. Simulators, however, are becoming frustratingly slow, because they must now model increasingly complex micro-architectures running realistic workloads. Previously, we developed a technique called fast-forwarding, which applied partial evaluation and memoization to improve the performance of detailed architectural simulations by as much as an order of magnitude. While writing a detailed processor simulator is difficult, implementing fast-forwarding is even more complex. This paper describes Facile, a domain-specific language for writing detailed, accurate micro-architecture simulators. Architectural descriptions written in Facile can be compiled, using partial evaluation techniques, into fast-forwarding simulators that achieve significant performance improvements with far less programmer effort. Facile and its compiler make this performance-enhancing technique accessible to computer architects.