Example Simulations

HotSpot includes six example simulations in the examples directory. Each simulation can be run by executing run.sh in the appropriate directory. We recommend that new users go through these examples to learn how the various files and simulation options can be used. With the exception of example6 (which uses hotfloorplan), you'll notice that each example actually runs two simulations. First we run a steady-state simulation, then we run a transient simulation in which we initialize the chip temperatures to the results of the previous steady-state simulation. This is the recommended way to use HotSpot.

Example 1

This is a simulation of running gcc on a floorplan similar to an Alpha EV6 processor using HotSpot's block model.

Example 2

This is the same simulation as Example 1, except we use HotSpot's grid model instead.

Example 3

In this example, we run a simple 3D simulation. We also demonstrate in this simulation how some of HotSpot's included scripts can be used to generate heat maps.

Example 4

We again run a 3D simulation in this example, but we use the -detailed_3D simulation option to demonstrate how you can specify the volumetric heat capacity and thermal resistivity for individual floorplan elements.

Example 5

This simulation demonstrates HotSpot's ability to perform simulations with microfluidic cooling, a feature new to HotSpot 7.0.

Example 6

This example demonstrates how to use the hotfloorplan tool to do thermal-aware floorplanning.