Hybrid-Memory-Simulator : MARSSX86 && NVMain && DRAMSim2 && HybridSim

Hybrid-Memory-Simulator is a simulation tool for x86-64 based computing system with hybrid memory system consisting of both non-volatile memory(such as SSD , PCM ) and dynamic random access memory.

It is based on four independent open-source project: MARSSx86(http://www.marss86.org/~marss86/index.php/Home), NVMain(http://wiki.nvmain.org/) , DRAMsim2(https://github.com/jimstevens2001/DRAMSim2), NVDIMMSim(nvm simulator,but not very accurate , https://github.com/jimstevens2001/NVDIMMSim), HybridSim(https://github.com/jimstevens2001/HybridSim).Thanks for the hard working of people who had developed these simulators and made them open-source.

System Requirements

To compile Marss on your system, you will need following:

2.5GHz CPU with minimum 2GB RAM (4GB Preferred)
Standard C++ compiler, like g++ or icc
SCons tool for compiling Marss (Minimum version 1.2.0)
SDL Development Libraries (Required for QEMU)

Patches

These patches are provided for original marss which does not support for NVMAIN, DRAMSim2 and HybridSim.

patch-config : modify config files to example config files of hybrid-memory-simulator ;
patch-hybrid-simulator : modify files of original MARSSX86 , makes it support for NVMAIN, DRAMSim2 and HybridSim
attention: before patch with file patch-config , you must backup your config files in the config directory first

commands:

patches -p1 < path of file patch-config
patches -p1 < path of file patch-hybrid-system

Compiling

If you do not have SCons install, install it using your stanard application installation program like apt-get or yum.

Once you have SCons install go to the code hybrid-memory-simulator and give following command:

$scons -Q config=machine configuration path  [mem=NVMAIN/DRAMSIM/HYBRIDSIM] [mem_dir=path of memory simulator] [debug=0/1/2] [c=num of cores]

config: required , path of machine config file
mem : optional , default is NVMAIN ( plug NVMain as memory system simulator)
mem_dir : optional , default is hybrid-memory-simulator/nvmain ( if mem_dir is default , make sure nvmain simulator exists in hybrid-memory-simulator directory)
debug : optional , default is 0 (no debugging)
c: optional , default is 1, single-core configuration
attention :
- NVMAIN as mem , default mem_dir is hybrid-memory-simulator/nvmain
- DRAMSIM as mem , default mem_dir is hybrid-memory-simulator/DRAMSim2
- HYBRIDSIM as mem , default mem_dir is hybrid-memory-simulator/HybridSim
- before compile hybrid-memory-system , you must make sure libdramsim.so in DRAMSim2 directory and libhybridsim.so in HybridSim directory

e.g.:

$ scons -Q mem=NVMAIN config=config/new-machine/moesi.conf c=2

To clean your compilation:

$ command of build a machine -c ( eg. scons -Q mem=NVMAIN config=config/new-machine/moesi.conf c=2 -c)
$ rm -rf build/

Running

After successfull compilation, to run hybrid-memory-simulator , go to hybrid-memory-simulator directory , then give the following command:

$ qemu/qemu-system-x86_64 -m [memory_size] -hda [path-to-qemu-disk-image] -simconfig [simconfig file path] [-nographic]

-m: optional , memory size , unit is M or G or K
-hda : required , path of qemu disk image
-simconfig: optional , path of simconfig file , simconfig file is used to config simulation , such as logfile,nvmain_config_path , loglevel , configuration related to dramsim2 , etc. You can know it deeply through MARSSX86 webpage(http://www.marss86.org/~marss86/index.php/Home). You can also switch to simulation mode , and set simconfig according to following step.
-nographic: when connect remote server with shell , and run qemu through shell , should add this option to disable graphic requirement.

You can use all the regular QEMU command here, like start VM window in VNC give vnc :10 etc.

you can use a new command window

command: $vinagre 127.0.0.1:5900

Once the system is booted, you can switch to Monitor mode usingy Ctrl-Alt-2 key and give following command to switch to simulation mode:

(qemu) simconfig -run -stopinsns 100m -stats [stats-file-name]

To get the list of available simulation options give following command:

(qemu) simconfig

It will print all the simulation options on STDOUT.