Analytic evaluation of shared-memory systems with ILP processors

This paper develops and validates an analytical model for evaluating various types of architectural alternatives for shared-memory systems with processors that aggressively exploit instruction-level parallelism. Compared to simulation, the analytical model is many orders of magnitude faster to solve, yielding highly accurate system-performance estimates in seconds. The model input parameters characterize the ability of an application to exploit instruction-level parallelism as well as the interaction between the application and the memory system architecture. A trace-driven simulation methodology is developed that allows these parameters to be generated over 100 times faster than with a detailed execution-driven simulator. Finally, this paper shows that the analytical model can be used to gain insights into application performance and to evaluate architectural design trade-offs.