A Simulation Generator for Multiprocessor Systems (preliminary version)
Amos Israeli, Theodor A. Nissim · 1990
may vary from synchronous behavior to any kind of asynchronous behavior. In addition, these systems are expensive,and, usually, are not easily reconfigurable to a different architecture. Simulation plays an important role in development and verification of new protocols and may be very helpful in generating models of the behavior of future multiprocessor systems. In this work we present a simulation generator for multiprocessor systems. The generator allows the simulation of a broad spectrum of multiprocessor systems, including many models which are common in the literature. The generator may be ported to any UNIX host machines in a short time. The generator is easy to use and the resulting simulations are very efficient. A very general simulation tool for multiprocessor systems is proposed. The definition of the simulation generator is based on consideration of two principal characteristics of multiprocessor systems, namely communication means and temporal behavior. Simulation of a wide spectrum of systems is enabled by allowing both shared memory and message passing as communication means, as well as by allowing any possible temporal behavior under the interleaving assumption. The rationale for the simulation generator is presented and its main features are described together with some implementation highlights.