Google Summer of Code

Project Ideas

All the ideas listed here will require some familiarity with Python and a good grasp of advanced C++ concepts.

1. Build a direct execution CPU model based on the Linux Kernel Virtual Machine
   • http://kvm.qumranet.com/kvmwiki
2. Parallelize M5
   • Use the Wisconsin Wind Tunnel as a guide
   • This actually isn't as bad as it sounds as all objects schedule their own events and there are limited ways they can interact with other objects in the system.
3. Memory network models
   • (e.g. Crossbar or Mesh)
4. Directory Protocol
5. Real In-order core model
   • There is code to start with but nothing that is fully fleshed out.
6. Write a PLI interface to connect Verilog CPUs to the memory system.
7. Sampling/fast-forwarding techniques
   • This would have the most impact if it was coupled with (1)
   • Using SMARTS work would be a good guide
8. Flash memory device model (seems popular nowadays)
   • This could be a hard drive based model like we're seeing in laptops now or a memory device model like several research papers have suggested as storage in between DRAM and disk.

Mentors / M5 Simulation Team

• Steve Reinhardt (Ph.D, Univ. of Michigan) - Simulator Infrastructure; ISA description; Full System Simulation
• Nate Binkert (Ph.D, Univ. of Michigan) - Parallel Simulation; Networking Models; Configuration Scripts
• Ali Saidi (M.S., Univ. of Michigan) - Simulator Infrastructure; Full System Simulation
• Lisa Hsu (M.S., Univ. of Michigan) - Full System Workloads; Memory Modeling; Checkpointing Simulations
• Kevin Lim (M.S., Univ. of Michigan) - CPU Modeling (Out-of-Order, SimpleCPU) ; Full-System Simulation;
• Gabe Black (M.S., Univ. of Michigan) - ISA description (SPARC, x86); Simulator Infrastructure; Full System Simulation
• Korey Sewell (M.S., Univ. of Michigan) - ISA description (MIPS); Out-of-Order CPU Modeling; SMT Simulation
• Ron Dreslinski (M.S., Univ. of Michigan) - Memory Modeling