Mermaid: modelling and evaluation research in MIMD architecture design

The Mermaid project focuses on the construction of simulation models for MIMD multi-computers in order to evaluate them and to give estimates of the system’s performance. A multi-layered approach was adopted in which three levels can be distinguished. The application level describes application behaviour in an abstract manner, unrelated to any hardware or architecture specifics. Subsequently, the generation level translates these application descriptions to a hardware dependent trace of operations that drives the simulators. And finally, the architecture level consists of the trace-driven architecture simulation models. Preliminary simulation results show that, despite the high abstraction level at which is simulated, good accuracy can be obtained.