РАЗРАБОТКА СИМУЛЯТОРА, ПОДДЕРЖИВАЮЩЕГО ПОТАКТОВЫЙ РЕЖИМ РАБОТЫ, НА ОСНОВЕ ТЕКУЩЕЙ ВЕРСИИ ФУНКЦИОНАЛЬНОГО СИМУЛЯТОРА АРХИТЕКТУРЫ "ЭЛЬБРУС"

During development of computer systems and accompanying software there is a need in software models of processors (simulators) of various simulation detail and speed. High speed simulation is provided by instruction set simulators (ISS) and high detail simulation is provided by cycle-accurate simulators (CAS). Simultaneous development of ISS and CAS is a time-consuming task. In this paper, we address the problem of reducing the complexity of development and support of simulators of various levels of accuracy for VLIW microprocessors. As a solution we propose development of single simulator that can function both as ISS and as CAS. Using the example of Elbrus simulator development, we describe a method for constructing such multipurpose simulator. This method is mostly based on the gradual extension and refinement of the ISS to the capabilities of CAS and on the semi-automatic simplification of the resulting CAS to the ISS. Performance of the resulting ISS is on par with performance of the original ISS, slowdown of the CAS relative to the ISS is estimated at 10x-15x.