The design of new computer architectures relies heavily on simulation. New architectures that incorporate unconventional features or novel designs can not usually use established simulators and, therefore, designers have to adapt an existing one or develop their own from scratch. Traditionally, software-based simulators have been the main platform for architectural exploration. However, the introduction of high-level hardware description languages, such as Bluespec, together with improvements in reconfigurable hardware platforms, provides an opportunity to challenge the traditional notion and consider hardware-accelerated simulators for this purpose. This paper presents a comprehensive analysis of three simulators, a hardware-accelerated one, a high-fidelity software-based one and a mature, generic software one, each of them developed to evaluate different aspects of a novel, unconventional architecture: the SpiNNaker massively-parallel computer. The analysis includes a discussion of the different modelling and implementation trade-offs and a comparison with the real system.

新计算机体系结构的设计在很大程度上依赖于仿真。包含非常规功能或新颖设计的新体系结构通常不能使用已建立的模拟器，因此，设计师必须改编现有的模拟器或从头开始开发自己的模拟器。传统上，基于软件的模拟器一直是架构探索的主要平台。但是，诸如Bluespec之类的高级硬件描述语言的引入，以及可重新配置的硬件平台的改进，为挑战传统观念并为此考虑硬件加速模拟器提供了机会。本文对三种模拟器进行了全面的分析，一种是硬件加速的，一种是基于高保真软件的，另一种是成熟的通用软件，他们每个人的发展都是为了评估新型非常规架构的不同方面：SpiNNaker大规模并行计算机。分析包括不同建模和实现折衷的讨论，以及与真实系统的比较。