A Survey of Computer Architecture Simulation Techniques and Tools

Computer architecture simulators play an important role in advancing computer architecture research. With wider research directions and the increased number of simulators that have been developed, it becomes harder to choose a particular simulator to use. This paper reviews the fundamentals of different computer architecture simulation techniques. It also surveys many computer architecture simulators and classifies them into different groups based on their simulation models. Comparing computer architecture simulators with each other and validating their accuracy have been demanding tasks for architects. In addition to providing a survey of computer architecture simulation tools, we measured the experimental error of six contemporary computer architecture simulators: gem5, MARSSx86, Multi2Sim, PTLsim, Sniper, and ZSim. We also performed a detailed comparison of these simulators based on other features such as flexibility and micro-architectural details. We believe that this paper will be a very useful resource for the computer architecture community especially for early-stage computer architecture and systems researchers to gain exposure to the existing architecture simulation options.