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gem5-gpu is a new simulator that models tightly integrated CPU-GPU systems. It builds on gem5, a modular full-system CPU simulator, and GPGPU-Sim, a detailed GPGPU simulator. gem5-gpu routes most memory accesses through Ruby, which is a highly configurable memory system in gem5. By doing this, it is able to simulate many system configurations, ranging from a system with coherent caches and a single virtual address space across the CPU and GPU to a system that maintains separate GPU and CPU physical address spaces. gem5-gpu can run most unmodified CUDA 3.2 source code. Applications can launch non-blocking kernels, allowing the CPU and GPU to execute simultaneously. We present gem5-gpu ’s software architecture and a brief performance validation. We also discuss possible extensions to the simulator. gem5-gpu is open source and available at gem5-gpu.cs.wisc.edu.

Efficient memory sharing between CPU and GPU threads can greatly expand the effective set of GPGPU workloads. For increased programmability, this memory should be uniformly virtualized, necessitating compatible address translation support for GPU memory references. However, even a modest GPU might need 100s of translations per cycle (6 CUs * 64 lanes/CU) with memory access patterns designed for throughput more than locality.