In this thesis, the objective was to implement a PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) Express interconnect in the gem5 architecture simulator. The interconnect was designed with the goal of aiding accurate modeling of PCI Express-based devices in gem5 in the future. The PCI Express interconnect that was created consisted of a root complex, PCI Express switch, as well as individual PCI Express links. Each of these created components can work independently, and can be easily integrated into the existing gem5 platforms for the ARM Instruction Set Architecture.
The created PCI Express interconnect was evaluated against a real PCI Express interconnect present on an Intel Xeon server platform. The bandwidth offered by both interconnects was compared by reading data from storage devices using the Linux utility “dd”. The results indicate that the gem5 PCI Express interconnect can provide between 81% - 91.6% of the bandwidth of the real PCI Express interconnect. However, architectural differences between the gem5 and Intel Xeon platforms used, as well as unimplemented features of the PCI Express protocol in the gem5 PCI Express interconnect, necessitate more strenuous validation of the created PCI Express interconnect before reaching a definitive conclusion on its performance.
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