MinorArmAnalyzer

A CPU pipeline analyzer for ARM architecture built on top of the gem5 simulator. It compiles ARM assembly programs, runs them on gem5's MinorCPU model, and produces human-readable cycle-by-cycle execution traces.

Features

• Compiles ARM assembly files (AArch32 and AArch64) to static binaries
• Runs binaries on gem5 with full debug tracing
• Parses gem5 trace output and maps addresses to disassembled instructions
• Displays cycle-by-cycle pipeline visualization covering: Fetch, Decode, Execute, Memory, Cache, Scoreboard, and Branch Prediction stages
• Includes Draw.io diagrams of the MinorCPU pipeline architecture

Project structure

MinorArmAnalyzer/
├── orchestrator.py     # Main script: compilation, simulation, orchestration
├── dumptohuman.py      # Trace parser and human-readable visualizer
├── config.json         # Pipeline stage label configuration
├── Diagrammi/          # Draw.io diagrams of the MinorCPU pipeline
│   ├── MinorArm.drawio         # Top-level architecture
│   ├── Fetch1/2.drawio         # Fetch stages
│   ├── Decode, Execute         # Decode and execute stages
│   ├── MinorArmIntOp.drawio    # Integer operations
│   ├── MinorArmMulOp.drawio    # Multiplication operations
│   ├── MinorArmDivOp.drawio    # Division operations
│   ├── MinorArmFloatOp.drawio  # Floating-point operations
│   ├── MinorArmBranchOp.drawio # Branch operations
│   └── MinorArmMem1/2, ...     # Memory stages
└── Programmi/          # ARM assembly test programs
    ├── test.s, testfull.s      # Basic and full instruction tests
    ├── testbranch.s/2.s        # Branch instruction tests
    ├── testcond.s              # Conditional instruction tests
    ├── testdiv.s, testmul.s    # Division and multiplication tests
    ├── testldrstr.s            # Load/Store tests
    ├── testmem.s, teststmldm.s # Memory operation tests
    ├── testcachesize.s         # Cache size testing
    ├── testbranchpredictionsize.s # Branch prediction testing
    └── ...

Usage

Install dependencies:

python3 orchestrator.py --install

Compile and simulate an ARM assembly file:

python3 orchestrator.py <file.s>

Visualize execution traces:

python3 dumptohuman.py <trace_file> [-fs function] [-cs start_cycle] [-ce end_cycle] [-i] [-td 32|64]

Dependencies

• Python 3 with capstone library
• gem5 simulator
• ARM cross-compilation toolchain (arm-linux-gnueabihf-gcc, aarch64-linux-gnu-gcc)

License

Apache License 2.0 - see LICENSE for details.