NISC Modeling and Simulation

Running an application on a general purpose processor is not very efficient and implementing the whole application in hardware is not always possible. The best option is to run the application on a customized data path that is designed based on the characteristics of the application. The instruction set interface in normal processors limits the possible customization of the data path. In NISC, the instruction interface is removed and the data path is directly controlled. Therefore, any customization in the data path can be easily utilized by the supporting tools such as compiler and simulator and one set of such tools is enough to handle all kinds of data paths. To achieve this goal, a generic model is needed to capture the data path information that these tools require. In this report we present one such model and show how it can be used for simulation and compilation. We also discuss the issues that must be addressed during compilation and simulation based on the proposed model.