Difference between revisions of "The Sniper Multi-Core Simulator"

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=== Features ===
 
=== Features ===
[[File:Level2vis400.png|right|CPI stack visualization in Sniper 4.1|link=http://snipersim.org/viz/fft-test-2/levels/level2/cyclestacks.html]]
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[[File:Level2vis400.png|right|CPI stack visualization in Sniper 4.1|link=http://snipersim.org/viz/fft-tiny-4/levels/level2/cyclestacks.html]]
[[File:Level3vis400.png|right|IPC visualization in Sniper 4.1|link=http://snipersim.org/viz/fft-test-2/levels/level3/level3.html]]
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[[File:Level3vis400.png|right|IPC visualization in Sniper 4.1|link=http://snipersim.org/viz/fft-tiny-4/levels/level3/level3.html]]
 
In addition to the main features mentioned above, we have updated
 
In addition to the main features mentioned above, we have updated
 
the base simulation infrastructure to allow for simulating a larger
 
the base simulation infrastructure to allow for simulating a larger
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* [[Interval Simulation|Interval core model]]
 
* [[Interval Simulation|Interval core model]]
 
* Multi-threaded application sampling support
 
* Multi-threaded application sampling support
* [[CPI Stacks]] and [http://snipersim.org/viz/fft-test-2/ advanced visualization support] to gain insight into lost cycles
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* [[CPI Stacks]] and [http://snipersim.org/viz/fft-tiny-4/ advanced visualization support] to gain insight into lost cycles
 
* Parallel, multi-threaded simulator
 
* Parallel, multi-threaded simulator
 
* [[Multi-programmed workloads|Multi-program]] and multi-threaded application support, x86 and x86-64, SSE2
 
* [[Multi-programmed workloads|Multi-program]] and multi-threaded application support, x86 and x86-64, SSE2

Revision as of 01:45, 7 October 2013

September 22nd: Sniper tutorial at IISWC

September 17th: Sniper 5.2 released

May 14th: SPEC CPU2006 Whole-program and region pinballs are now available to download

April 23rd: Our recent work on multi-threaded sampled simulation (paper|presentation) won the ISPASS 2013 Best Paper Award

February 23rd: Tutorial slides available: Sniper and PinPoints+Sniper at HPCA 2013

Sniper is a next generation parallel, high-speed and accurate x86 simulator. This multi-core simulator is based on the interval core model and the Graphite simulation infrastructure, allowing for fast and accurate simulation and for trading off simulation speed for accuracy to allow a range of flexible simulation options when exploring different homogeneous and heterogeneous multi-core architectures.

The Sniper simulator allows one to perform timing simulations for both multi-program workloads and multi-threaded, shared-memory applications with 10s to 100+ cores, at a high speed when compared to existing simulators. The main feature of the simulator is its core model which is based on interval simulation, a fast mechanistic core model. Interval simulation raises the level of abstraction in architectural simulation which allows for faster simulator development and evaluation times; it does so by 'jumping' between miss events, called intervals. Sniper has been validated against multi-socket Intel Core2 and Nehalem systems and provides average performance prediction errors within 25% at a simulation speed of up to several MIPS.

This simulator, and the interval core model, is useful for uncore and system-level studies that require more detail than the typical one-IPC models, but for which cycle-accurate simulators are too slow to allow workloads of meaningful sizes to be simulated. As an added benefit, the interval core model allows the generation of CPI stacks, which show the number of cycles lost due to different characteristics of the system, like the cache hierarchy or branch predictor, and leads to a better understanding of each component's effect on total system performance. This extends the use for Sniper to application characterization and hardware/software co-design.

Features

CPI stack visualization in Sniper 4.1
IPC visualization in Sniper 4.1

In addition to the main features mentioned above, we have updated the base simulation infrastructure to allow for simulating a larger set of workloads on more recent simulated hardware. Here is the full set of some of the recently added features:

You can find additional information on the simulator and its components in our SC'11 paper.

Getting started

Discussion list

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Please send any questions or comments to: snipersim [at] googlegroups [dot] com . You can also visit our Google Groups page to subscribe to the list and search through the archive of previous messages.

Team Members

More information

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