ECSE 425 Project – Fall 2011

This semester, all students will work in pairs to complete a final architecture project in which they:

• Propose modifications to the MIPS64 architecture, as implemented by the EduMIPS64 simulator,

• Implement these changes in the simulator,

• Evaluate the effect of these changes on performance,

• Present their modifications and experimental results to the class, and

• Submit a final report for review by the instructor.

The objective of this course is to familiarize students with architectural simulation, and reinforce concepts discussed in the class with hands-on implementation, debugging, and experimentation.

Project Teams

The following projects have been proposed by the students in the class. Groups are allowed to discuss their projects with each other, and even share benchmar ks. Final group reports must indicate which benchmarks were developed by whom; each group is expected to be able to justify their selection of benchmarks.

Branch Prediction

Branch prediction teams are encouraged to either (a) explore the effect of size on prediction accuracy, or (b) calibrate their predictor so it uses the same amount of state as a 256 entry (4,4) correlating branch predictor.

• Mohammed Banjari and Azraf Hipni: comparison of flushing, predicted-not-taken, and predicted-taken.

• Ahmad Abou Nassif: comparison of predicted-not-taken and a (0, n) dynamic predictor.

• Anaka Huda and Bertin LeBlanc: comparison of predicted-not-taken and a (1, 2) correlating predictor (sized to cost-equivalent with the following project).

• Daniel Kostiuk and Hao Tang: comparison of predicted-not-taken and a (4, 4), 256 entry correlating predictor.

• Bo Feng and Mojing Liu: comparison of branch-target buffer and predicted-not-taken.

Cache Hierarchy

• Ryan Braun and Han Chen: the effect of caching.

Structural Hazards

• Joel Bratin and Keon Lee: the effect of a register file that can't be read and written in the same cycle.

Project Files

• Project Definition, Revision 1

Simulation Framework

• EduMIPS64 simulator

• EduMIPS64 manual

DineroIV Cache Simulator

• Pre-compiled DineroIV front-end (for projects investigating caching)

Sample Benchmarks

• EduMIPS64 Samples Pack

• More EduMIPS64 Samples

• EduMIPS64 FP Samples

Other Links

• EduMIPS64

• Apache Ant (used to build EduMIPS64)

• MESH (MIPS Editor with Syntax Highlighting)