Patent ID: 7110934

Claim:
A method of controlling a simulator to run a software simulation of a data processing system to generate simulated timing data, the software simulation providing a timing accurate model of parts of the data processing system other than an unmodelled portion of the data processing system not modelled by the software simulation, the method comprising: inputting to a controller of the simulator real trace data obtained from execution of a program by the data processing system, the real trace data identifying the sequence of instructions executed by the data processing system and associated timing data; running the software simulation under the control of the controller, the controller determining from the real trace data the sequence of instructions executed by the data processing system and controlling the software simulation to ensure that the same sequence of instructions is executed within the software simulation; generating simulated timing data resulting from execution of said sequence of instructions within the software simulation; whereby the performance of said unmodelled portion of the data processing system is derivable from a comparison of the real trace data and the simulated timing data.