User-level threading for simulating multi-core processor

Abstract

A method improves an execution speed of a host multi-core simulator simulating a target multi-core processor that has a hierarchical architecture including multiple corelets per core that, in turn include multiple functional units. The host multi-core simulator is implemented using multiple OS threads. The method selects layers in the hierarchical architecture to simulate on one of the OS threads, based on a shortest estimated layer execution time determined by (1.0+t/c*s)/min(c, t), wherein c is a number of cores in the simulator, t is a number of OS threads, and s is a threading overhead coefficient. The method respectively executes, from among the selected layers, a parallel simulation of the units therein that frequently communicate with each other on one of the multiple OS threads based on a communication frequency threshold, by assigning and using a respective user-level thread for each of the units from among a plurality of user-level threads.