Digital Library of the European Council for Modelling and Simulation

Title:	A Visual Simulation Framework For Simultaneous Multithreading Architectures
Authors:	Adrian Florea, Alexandru Ratiu, Arpad Gellert, Lucian N. Vinţan
Published in:	(2011).ECMS 2011 Proceedings edited by: T. Burczynski, J. Kolodziej, A. Byrski, M. Carvalho. European Council for Modeling and Simulation. doi:10.7148/2011 ISBN: 978-0-9564944-2-9 25^th European Conference on Modelling and Simulation, Jubilee Conference Krakow, June 7-10, 2011
Citation format:	Florea, A., Ratiu, A., Gellert, A., & Vintan, L. N. (2011). A Visual Simulation Framework For Simultaneous Multithreading Architectures. ECMS 2011 Proceedings edited by: T. Burczynski, J. Kolodziej, A. Byrski, M. Carvalho (pp. 403-409). European Council for Modeling and Simulation. doi:10.7148/2011-0403-0409
DOI:	http://dx.doi.org/10.7148/2011-0403-0409
Abstract:	The computing systems, and particularly microarchitectures, are in a continuous expansion reaching an unmanageable complexity by the human mind. In order to understand and control this expansion, researchers need to design and implement larger and more complex systems’ simulators. In the current paradigm the simulators play the key role in going further, by translating all complex processing mechanisms in relevant and easy to understand information. This paper aims to make a suggestive description of the concepts and principles implemented into a Simultaneous Multithreading Architecture. We introduce the SMTAHSim framework, an educational tool that simulates in an interactive manner the important aspects of this particular microarchitecture. The graphical simulation and the results reporting techniques provide a lot of easy to understand information that outline an expressive image of Simultaneous Multithreading (SMT) processing mechanisms. Our developed software tool facilitates the understanding of theoretical questions, thus allowing students to feel more confident when studying SMT- related issues.
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