Hi Zeb,

If you want to compare the number of instructions committed in O3 vs
atomic, compare the following 2 stats:
O3: cpu.commit.commitCommittedInsts
Atomic: cpu.num_insts (which goes into sim_insts)
These two should generally be equal.

The cpu.committedInsts (which goes into sim_insts) in O3 gives you the
number of committed instructions excluding NOPs and prefetch
instructions.  I think that explains the difference.

-Ashish

On Wed, Mar 13, 2013 at 8:30 AM, Zebulun Barnett <[email protected]> wrote:
> tl;dr Detailed cpu borked? --prog-interval borked? definitely :(
>
> Greetings,
>
> My research group has recently started using Gem5 (coming from m5) and we
> have noticed an anomaly with the Alpha SE Detailed(O3) CPU model. Of the 4
> types of CPU available (Atomic, Detailed(O3), Timing, InOrder) all but the
> Detailed model take the exact same number of instructions to complete a
> benchmark. The Detailed CPU consistently requires less instructions (about
> %10 less) to complete a given benchmark. Multiple benchmarks have indicated
> the same result. We are aware that the main difference between the Detailed
> CPU and the others is that it is an out-of-order processor. Is it possible
> this is the cause of the difference? Is it simply handling the instructions
> more efficiently?
>
> During our testing, we attempted to use fast forwarding to convince
> ourselves that the different CPU types actually did commit a different
> number of instructions. In, libquantum, one of the benchmarks in which we
> noticed this behavior, the atomic cpu commits ~289 million instructions
> while the detailed cpu commits ~269 million instructions. With fast
> forwarding (using the atomic cpu and switching to the detailed model at 200
> million instructions) the total number of instructions committed is ~282.
> This number convinces us that the detailed model indeed commits a different
> amount of instructions than the other types.
>
> Also, during the fast forward test, we set --prog-interval to 1,000,000
> instructions. The interval behaved normally up to the switch, but once the
> detailed CPU took over, it started reporting the same value every time. Each
> printout after the switch was stuck at 2,000,001 instructions and the
> committed instruction value was 0. However, the simulation completed as if
> it committed all instructions successfully. We will submit a bug report for
> this specific issue, but if anyone else has experienced this, please let us
> know.
>
> If these are well-known or obvious issues, I apologize in advance for
> wasting your time. Let it be known that I did search the archives to no
> avail.
>
> Any insight would be most appreciated.
>
> Thank you,
> Zeb Barnett
>
> -----
> Student Research Assistant
> High Performance Computer Lab
> Lamar University
>
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