Virtual synchronization for fast distributed cosimulation of dataflow task graphs

ABSTRACT

Fast distributed cosimulation is a challenging problem for the embedded system design. The main theme of this paper is to increase simulation speed by reducing the frequency of inter-simulator communications, reducing the active duration of simulators and utilizing the parallelism of component simulators, which is accomplished by combining event-driven and data-driven simulation methods. The proposed technique is applicable when the simulated tasks follow dataflow execution semantics. Experimental results show that the proposed technique can boost the cosimulation speed significantly compared with the previous conservative approaches.

REFERENCES

• 1: Cassandras, C., "Discrete event systems, modeling and per-formance analysis", Irwin, Homewood IL, 1993.
• 2: David R. Jefferson, Virtual time, ACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems (TOPLAS), v.7 n.3, p.404-425, July 1985 [doi>10.1145/3916.3988]
• 3: K. M. Chandy , J. Misra, Asynchronous distributed simulation via a sequence of parallel computations, Communications of the ACM, v.24 n.4, p.198-206, April 1981 [doi>10.1145/358598.358613]
• 4: Dirk Desmet , Michiel Esvelt , Probhat Avasare , Diederik Verkest , Hugo De Man, Timed executable system specification of an ADSL modem using a C++ based design environment: a case study, Proceedings of the seventh international workshop on Hardware/software codesign, p.38-42, March 1999, Rome, Italy [doi>10.1145/301177.301198]
• 5: Johan Cockx, Efficient Modeling of Preemption in a Virtual Prototype, Proceedings of the 11th IEEE International Workshop on Rapid System Prototyping (RSP 2000), p.14, June 21-23, 2000
• 6: M. Meerwein , C. Baumgartner , T. Wieja , W. Glauert, Embedded systems verification with FGPA-enhanced in-circuit emulator, Proceedings of the 13th international symposium on System synthesis, September 20-22, 2000, Madrid, Spain [doi>10.1145/501790.501821]
• 7: Kim, D. and Ha. S., "System level specification for multimedia applications", the 6th Conference of Asia Pacific CHip Design Languages, Fukuoka, Japan, Oct. 6-8, 1999
• 8: Sung, W. and Ha, S., "Efficient and Flexible Cosimulation Environment for DSP Applications" , IEICE Transactions on Fundamentals of Electronics, Communications and Computer Sciences, Special Issue on VLSI Design and CAD algorithms, Vol.E81-A, No. 12, pp. 2605--2611, December, 1998
• 9: Sungjoo Yoo , Kiyoung Choi, Optimistic distributed timed cosimulation based on thread simulation model, Proceedings of the 6th international workshop on Hardware/software codesign, p.71-75, March 15-18, 1998, Seattle, Washington, United States
• 10: David Nicol , Philip Heidelberger, Parallel execution for serial simulators, ACM Transactions on Modeling and Computer Simulation (TOMACS), v.6 n.3, p.210-242, July 1996 [doi>10.1145/235025.235031]
• 11: Atef, D., Salem, A. and Baraka, H., "An Architecture of Distributed Co-Simulation", 42nd Midwest Symposium on Circuits and Systems 2000, Volume: 2 , 2000, Page(s): 855--858 vol. 2
• 12: R. Klein, Miami: a hardware software co-simulation environment, Proceedings of the 7th IEEE International Workshop on Rapid System Prototyping (RSP '96), p.173, June 19-21, 1996
• 13: Ken Hines , Gaetano Borriello, Dynamic communication models in embedded system co-simulation, Proceedings of the 34th annual conference on Design automation, p.395-400, June 09-13, 1997, Anaheim, California, United States [doi>10.1145/266021.266178]
• 14: Richard M. Fujimoto, Parallel discrete event simulation, Communications of the ACM, v.33 n.10, p.30-53, Oct. 1990 [doi>10.1145/84537.84545]
• 15: W. Sung , S. Ha, Optimized timed hardware software cosimulation without roll-back, Proceedings of the conference on Design, automation and test in Europe, p.945-946, February 23-26, 1998, Le Palais des Congrés de Paris, France
• 16: Mentor Graphics Seamless CVE Home Page (http://www.mentorg.com/seamless/)

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  B. Hardware
  B.7 INTEGRATED CIRCUITS
      B.7.2 Design Aids
          Subjects: Simulation

Additional Classification:
  B. Hardware
  B.7 INTEGRATED CIRCUITS
      B.7.2 Design Aids
          Subjects: Verification

General Terms:
Performance, Verification

Keywords:
cosimulation, distributed simulation, time accurate simulation, virtual synchronization