Benchmark Suite Results

A reference results table compares execution of the current set of benchmark cases on an IKOS VirtuaLogic Emulator (software version 1.4.3) versus a 6.6 SPECint95 Sun Ultra Enterprise 3000 (167MHZ processor) using gcc -O4. The following list defines the table headings:

• name - name of benchmark category
• case - parameterized case name
• elements - number of instantiated "parallel" elements or nodes in the design
• bits - bit width of operations performed in hardware
• cycles - number of hardware cycles required
• soft-speed - speed in kilohertz of software version doing the same work as the hardware cycles
• total-gates - total gate count, including Virtual Wires (global communication) overhead
• useful-gates - useful gate count, not including global communication overhead
• FPGAs - number of FPGAs used on the emulator
• v-cycles - number of emulator "virtual clocks" required per hardware clock cycle
• hard-clk - hardware clock rate (25MHZ / v-cycles)
• hard-speed - hardware execution speed (hard-clk / cycles)
• speedup - speedup of hardware versus software (hard-speed / soft-speed)
• per-fpga - speedup per FPGA (speedup / FPGAs)