PCMCsim (Phase-Change Memory Controller Simulator)

It is an event-driven simulator that accurately simulates a modern phase-chanage memory controller (PCMC). We made every effort to make this architecture resemble the PCM product. Furthermore, the accuracy of the confidential version is verified against RTL trace in SK Hynix, where functional error=3.16% and cycle error=13.6%

Descriptions of important classes in this source code:

• Component: base class for all modules
• MemoryControlSystem: top module of the controller
• RequestReceiver: an interface that receives requests from the host
• DataCache: serves as a data cache for RequestReceiver
• AITManager: generates commands to read AIT entries from DRAM subsystem
• MicroControlUnit: parent class for firmware algorithms (e.g., wear leveling)
• ReadModifyWrite: performs RMW because PCM access granularity > 64B
• uCMDEngine: decomposes requests as microcommands (e.g., ACT, PRE, etc.)
• DataPathUnit: encode/decode data to/from PCM media

Build and run the PCMCsim

Followings are requirements for the simulator:

• Git
• g++ (version>=4.8, which supports C++11)
• Scons

Steps for executing the simulator:

1. Download PCMCsim

    $ git clone https://github.com/harrylee365/pcmcsim_public.git
   

2. Build PCMCsim in O3 mode with 4 cores (confer debug option if O0 is desired)

    $ cd pcmcsim_public
    $ scons --build-type=fast -j4
   

3. Run PCMCsim (for more information, use --help):

    $ ./pcmcsim.fast -i ./test_trace/test.input -c ./configs/pcmcsim_base_public.cfg
   

About the configuration

The simplest configuration example is listed in pcmcsim_public/configs/pcmcsim_base_public.cfg

Two configurations should be noted:

• global.system: determines the system configuration. It can be DRAM or PCM. The former simply builds a memory subsystem only instantiating uCMDEngine; the latter builds a memory subsystem that incorporates all necessary features for a PCM controller
• global.ticks_per_cycle: determines the system frequency. The value '1' means 1 THz frequency. Also, each module can have its on frequency by configuring *.ticks_per_cycle

Contributors of PCMCsim

• Hyokeun Lee hklee@capp.snu.ac.kr
• Seokbo Shim sbshim@capp.snu.ac.kr
• Seungyong Lee sylee@capp.snu.ac.kr
• Hyungsuk Kim kimhs@capp.snu.ac.kr

Citation

@inproceedings{PCMCSIM, 
author = {Lee, Hyokeun and Kim, Hyungsuk and Lee, Seungyong and Hong, Dosun and Lee, Hyuk-Jae and Kim, Hyun},
title = {PCMCsim: An Accurate Phase-Change Memory Controller Simulator and its Performance Analysis},
booktitle = {IEEE International Symposium on Performance Analysis of Systems and Software (ISPASS)},
year = {2022}
}

Project LICENSE description

Copyright (c) 2019 Computer Architecture and Paralllel Processing Lab, Seoul National University, Republic of Korea. All rights reserved.

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

1. Redistribution of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the follwoing disclaimer.
2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distirubtion.
3. Neither the name of the copyright holders nor the name of its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT OWNER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

This project is supported by SK Hynix Inc. (2019-2021)

CONFIDENTIAL codes are REMOVED in this version