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Using NIC in gem5 with x86 architecture

Varun Chandrashekhar Gohil

Tue, May 16, 2023 6:12 PM

Hello,

The NIC module provided in gem5 works for the ARM architecture. However, I want to use it to simulate a cluster of multiple x86 machines.
This email thread (https://www.mail-archive.com/gem5-users@gem5.org/msg12680.html) explains how to port the NIC module to x86. It requires using a specific configuration file linux-2.6.28.4 configuration file (from this link: http://www.m5sim.org/dist/current/x86/config-x86.tar.bz2)

This link is invalid now and I could not find it in the gem5 resources. Could someone please point me to the current link?

Thank you,
Varun

Hello, The NIC module provided in gem5 works for the ARM architecture. However, I want to use it to simulate a cluster of multiple x86 machines. This email thread (https://www.mail-archive.com/gem5-users@gem5.org/msg12680.html) explains how to port the NIC module to x86. It requires using a specific configuration file linux-2.6.28.4 configuration file (from this link: http://www.m5sim.org/dist/current/x86/config-x86.tar.bz2) This link is invalid now and I could not find it in the gem5 resources. Could someone please point me to the current link? Thank you, Varun

Antoine Kaufmann

Wed, May 17, 2023 10:33 AM

Hi Varun,

for what it's worth, we've been using the Intel e1000/igb NIC in gem5 with
regular Linux for a while without problems, I would start there unless you
really want the other NIC.

We have some working (albeit complicated) full system dist gem5 (for a slightly
dated gem5 version) scripts with them here:
https://github.com/simbricks/gem5/blob/main/configs/simbricks/dist.py
https://github.com/simbricks/gem5/blob/main/util/dist/test/run_x86.sh

In general the new gem5-library style configurations for x86 full system config
seem to be much easier to understand and use, e.g. here:
https://github.com/gem5/gem5/blob/stable/configs/example/gem5_library/x86-ubuntu-run.py
Just creating multiple systems and adding the PCI NICs should be straight
forward.

Finally, if you plan to do larger simulations with many hosts etc. you might
want to have a look at SimBricks https://simbricks.github.io/ which also
includes some newer NICs that you can plug into gem5.

Hope this helps,
Antoine

On Tue, May 16 18:12, Varun Chandrashekhar Gohil via gem5-users wrote:

Hello,

This link is invalid now and I could not find it in the gem5 resources. Could someone please point me to the current link?

Thank you,
Varun

gem5-users mailing list -- gem5-users@gem5.org
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--
Antoine Kaufmann
antoinek@mpi-sws.org

Hi Varun, for what it's worth, we've been using the Intel e1000/igb NIC in gem5 with regular Linux for a while without problems, I would start there unless you really want the other NIC. We have some working (albeit complicated) full system dist gem5 (for a slightly dated gem5 version) scripts with them here: https://github.com/simbricks/gem5/blob/main/configs/simbricks/dist.py https://github.com/simbricks/gem5/blob/main/util/dist/test/run_x86.sh In general the new gem5-library style configurations for x86 full system config seem to be much easier to understand and use, e.g. here: https://github.com/gem5/gem5/blob/stable/configs/example/gem5_library/x86-ubuntu-run.py Just creating multiple systems and adding the PCI NICs should be straight forward. Finally, if you plan to do larger simulations with many hosts etc. you might want to have a look at SimBricks https://simbricks.github.io/ which also includes some newer NICs that you can plug into gem5. Hope this helps, Antoine On Tue, May 16 18:12, Varun Chandrashekhar Gohil via gem5-users wrote: > Hello, > > The NIC module provided in gem5 works for the ARM architecture. However, I want to use it to simulate a cluster of multiple x86 machines. > This email thread (https://www.mail-archive.com/gem5-users@gem5.org/msg12680.html) explains how to port the NIC module to x86. It requires using a specific configuration file linux-2.6.28.4 configuration file (from this link: http://www.m5sim.org/dist/current/x86/config-x86.tar.bz2) > > This link is invalid now and I could not find it in the gem5 resources. Could someone please point me to the current link? > > Thank you, > Varun > _______________________________________________ > gem5-users mailing list -- gem5-users@gem5.org > To unsubscribe send an email to gem5-users-leave@gem5.org -- Antoine Kaufmann <antoinek@mpi-sws.org>