FIN-02015 HUT

This thesis presents a generic approach towards compiling fast execution-driven simulators, and applies this to cache simulation of programs. The resulting cache simulation method reduces the time needed for cache performance evaluations without losing the accuracy of the results. Fast cache simulators are needed in the performance analysis of software systems. To properly understand the cache behavior caused by a program, simulations must be performed with a sufficient number of inputs. Traditional simulation of memory operations of a program can be orders of magnitude slower than the execution of the program. This leads to simulation times that are often infeasible in software development. The approach of this thesis is based on using static cache analysis to guide partial evaluation and slicing of simulators. Because of redundancy in memory access patterns of typical programs, an execution-driven cache simulator program can be partially evaluated during its compilation. Program slicing can b