VIRA: a virtualization assisted deterministic system-level simulations

In this paper, we propose an effective and practical virtualization-assisted (VIRA) approach for the annotation of synchronization points in hardware devices to reproduce deterministic system-level interactions. To achieve maximal efficiency, we leverage the existing hardware virtualization framework and utilize the trap mechanism for precise intercepts of system-level interactions with no need to check every data access. Additionally, the approach effectively uses the synchronization points to maintain deterministic chronological orders of system-level interactions. The experimental results show that the system-level interactions are simulated deterministically while running 58~625 times faster than a commercial functional system simulator.