X-on-X: Distributed Parallel Virtual Platforms for Heterogeneous Systems

The complexity of modern heterogeneous systems leads to simulation performance problems. We show how heterogeneous system verification can be accelerated using a heterogeneous simulator architecture, by distributing simulations amongst different hosts with a novel SystemC TLM-compliant method. Hosts are combined via a high-speed network to leverage their specific advantages when executing simulation segments. To avoid timing causality problems, a conservative, asynchronous parallel discrete event simulation approach is used. We analyze a machine learning task on an embedded Linux system using an ARMv8 virtual platform containing a commercial deep learning accelerator. There, our approach enables speedups of up to 3.9x.