How do I use the "Simics Training" and "QSP CPU" packages? - simics

Question

1 - There's a "Simics Training" package shown in the package manager, and a "targets\simics-user-training" and " targets\workshop-01". Where is the documentation about starting up and going through these trainings? (I assume this is different than just the normal "my-simics-project-1/documentation.html" documentation, because that documentation doesn't ever reference either of those targets in the Getting Started section)
2 - In the documentation there's a line: "The QSP-x86 package contains a legacy processor core which is used by default in the included simulated machines. To use more modern processors, the package QSP-CPU can be installed, which contains recent processor cores." How does one actually use the QSP-CPU to select a different CPU to be simulated? (Related: I see in the release notes a bunch of mentions of ICH10. Is that what the default QSP-x86 "targets\qsp-x86\firststeps.simics" is simulating? Ideally I'd like to simulate at least a PCH-based system.)

Answer 1

#Point 1
If you check the doc/ folder in your SImics project, you should have the lab instructions. It is a bit inconsistent that they are stand-alone PDFs, but that comes from how they are built currently. Look for nut-001 and workshop-01.
#Point 2 (and how come StackOverflow does not have heading styles? You can really use those to write nicely structured answers)
If you have installed everything, use the scripts "qsp-atom-core.simics" etc. to run the standard QSP setup but with a different type of core. For example:
> simics.bat targets\qsp-x86\qsp-client-core.simics
To see how that core is selected, open the script file. For example, to look at the client core script, first type/cat the trampoline script in the project. Then, go and open or cat or type the script file itself. For example:
C:\Users\jengblo\simics-projects\my-simics-project-5>type targets\qsp-x86\qsp-client-core.simics
# Auto-generated file. Any changes will be overwritten!
decl { substitute "C:\\Users\\jengblo\\AppData\\Local\\Programs\\Simics\\simics-qsp-cpu-6.0.1\\targets\\qsp-x86\\qsp-client-core.simics" }
run-command-file "C:\\Users\\jengblo\\AppData\\Local\\Programs\\Simics\\simics-qsp-cpu-6.0.1\\targets\\qsp-x86\\qsp-client-core.simics"
Given that trampoline, go to the actual script file:
C:\Users\jengblo\simics-projects\my-simics-project-5>type C:\\Users\\jengblo\\AppData\\Local\\Programs\\Simics\\simics-qsp-cpu-6.0.1\\targets\\qsp-x86\\qsp-client-core.simics
# In order to run this, the QSP-x86 (2096), QSP-CPU (8112) and
# QSP-Clear-Linux (4094) packages should be installed.
decl {
! Script that runs the Quick Start Platform (QSP) with a client processor core.
params from "%simics%/targets/qsp-x86/qsp-clear-linux.simics"
default cpu_comp_class = "x86-coffee-lake"
default num_cores = 4
}
run-command-file "%simics%/targets/qsp-x86/qsp-clear-linux.simics"
And note how the "cpu_comp_class" parameter is set. The way to find available such classes in a bit obscure, admittedly. In your running Simics session started from the client-core script (for example), check the types of the components inside the motherboard.
simics> list-components board.mb
┌─────────┬─────────────────────────┐
│Component│Class │
├─────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│cpu0 │processor_x86_coffee_lake│
│gpu │pci_accel_vga_comp │
│memory │simple_memory_module │
│nb │northbridge_x58 │
│sb │southbridge_ich10 │
└─────────┴─────────────────────────┘
Note the class of the cpu0 component. To find other classes from the same pattern, use the list-classes command:
simics> list-classes substr = processor_x86
The following classes are available:
┌─────────────────────────────┬──────────────────────────────┐
│ Class │ Short description │
├─────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────┤
│processor_x86QSP1 │N/A (module is not loaded yet)│
│processor_x86QSP2 │N/A (module is not loaded yet)│
│processor_x86_airmont │N/A (module is not loaded yet)│
│processor_x86_broadwell_xeon │N/A (module is not loaded yet)│
...
You can then build a custom script to start with a given core. Follow the pattern of "qsp-client-core.simics" as found in the installation. Copy that file into your project, and modify the core class as well as other parameters.