Getting started with a SIMICS multiprocessor simulation

From CERCS Multi-Core Repository

This is a simple exercise aimed in making the user familiar with SIMICS.

• Install and set up SIMICS as explained in the user guide and the quick start guide.

• Set up SIMICS for a uniprocessor simulation

• Compile the program test-simics.c which uses the pthreads package using gcc on your *host machine* and create the executable named test-simics

• Execute test-simics and obtain its execution time and note it down - this can be easily obtained by executing:

$ time ./test-simics

• Create a replica of the above simulation, except with two processors

• Try running the following command and note its results

$ time ./test-simics

• Do you observe any time differences in the program execution between the single and multiprocessor system?

• Repeat the above experiment by varying the number of threads in the program and the number of multiprocessors and graph the results