International Business Machines Corporation

Sascha Eckmann

Wolfgang Gellerich

Thomas Gardelegen

Bodo Hoppe

One or more processors receive a breakpoint. The breakpoint is paired with a resume point. One or more processors execute a set of machine instructions on a virtual processor model. One or more processors halt execution of the set of machine instructions on the virtual processor model at the breakpoint. One or more processors execute a fragment of a program instruction on a physical processor. The fragment is logically equivalent to the set of machine instructions between the breakpoint and the resume point. One or more processors load a processed result into the virtual processor model. The processed result results from executing the fragment on the physical processor. One or more processors resume the execution of the set of machine instructions on the virtual processor model at the resume point.

Simulation of virtual processors

A simulation environment benchmarks processors to determine processor performance. A benchmark program is instrumented with a microarchitecture instruction. A first clock cycle indicative of a processor before executing the benchmark program is captured. The benchmark program is executed and a processor return related to the microarchitecture instruction is intercepted. In response to the processor return, a second clock cycle indicative of the processor after executing the benchmark program is captured. The simulation environment determines the performance of the processor from the first clock cycle and the second clock cycle.

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Schloss Holte-Stukenbrock, Germany

Sascha Eckmann