http://carol.fwi.uva.nl/~andy/mermaid.html (World Wide Web Directory, 06/1995)
The Mermaid (Modelling and Evaluation Research in Mimd ArchItecture
Design) project focuses on the construction of simulation models for
Mimd multi-computers with the purpose of performance evaluation.
A multi-layered approach was adopted in which three levels can be
distinguished. The application level describes application behaviour in
an abstract manner, unrelated to any hardware or architecture
specifics. Subsequently, the generation level translates these
application descriptions to a hardware dependent trace of operations
that drives the simulators. Finally, the architecture level consists of
the trace-driven architecture simulation models.
The Mimd platforms modelled within Mermaid are the GCel and
PowerStone machines of Parsytec. Currently, the project has reached the
point in which the architecture simulation models are validated.
Initial validation results show that, despite the high abstraction
level of the simulation, good accuracy can be obtained. Considering the
average error margins, which do not exceed the 10 percent and the low
standard deviation of these average errors, the simulation models are
able to make proper estimates.
