SuperSim: Extensible Flit-Level Simulation of Large-Scale Interconnection Networks

Abstract

The interconnection networks of modern large-scale computing systems are quickly increasing in size and complexity to keep up with the demand for computing capability. These systems rely heavily on complex router microarchitectures and intelligent adaptive routing algorithms structured for cost-optimized low-diameter networks. These technologies need to be properly modeled and evaluated during design space exploration and for performance characterization of the system. We present SuperSim, an open-source flit-level interconnection network simulator that enables focused evaluation of issues related to designing and deploying large-scale high-performance networks. SuperSim is a programmer-centric simulation framework explicitly designed to be flexibly extended and is supported by a number of tools making it easy to use and allowing users to model systems quickly. In this work we show the results for simulation case studies demonstrating the power of SuperSim to uncover otherwise overlooked details in large-scale interconnection networks.