VIPRO-MP: A Virtual Prototype for Multiprocessor Architectures based on the SimpleScalar

This paper presents the VIPRO-MP (Virtual Prototype for Multiprocessor Architectures), an environment for virtual prototype development and simulation. The VIPRO-MP is constructed in SystemC, easing the specification of multiple processors prototypes and the inclusion of hardware IP components. The processors are based on the SimpleScalar superscalar processor simulator, providing the configuration of each core in terms of caches, branch predictor and internal processor features. This flexibility enables the VIPRO-MP to be used in the evaluation and tunning of embedded platforms where an optimized design in terms of performance and power consumption is needed. A JPEG encoding algorithm was used as case study to evaluate different platforms in terms of processors number and cache size, providing a fast performance and power consumption estimation.