VISTA : a visualization tool for computer architects

Abstract

As computer architectures continue to grow in complexity, software developers and hardware engineers cope with the increasing complexity by developing proprietary applications, simulations and tool sets to understand the behavior of these complex systems. Although the field of information visualization is leading to powerful applications in many areas, information visualization applications for computer architecture development are either tightly coupled with a specific architecture or target a wide range of computer system data. This thesis introduces the Visualization Tool for Computer Architects (VISTA) Environment. The VISTA Environment is an extensible and modular information visualization environment for hardware engineers, software developers and educators to visualize data from a variety of computer architecture simulations at different levels of abstraction. The VISTA Environment leverages common attributes in simulation data, computer architecture visualizations, and computer architecture development methods to create a powerful information visualization environment to aid in designing, understanding and communicating complex computer architectures.