Simulation of ARM and x86 microprocessors using in-order and out-of-order CPU models with Gem5 simulator

Abstract

In the past, ARM and Intel x86 computer processors were leaders in the different specialized areas with no competing interest. While Intel was building processors for the PCs and servers, ARM was concentrated on the handheld devices. Nowadays, with no hard limits in computing power between the different sizes of devices, ARM and Intel-based microprocessors are competitors. In this paper, a comparative study is done to evaluate the performance of the two microprocessors. Both, the in-order and the out-of-order, CPU models are used within each architecture, and four performance metrics (total consumed energy, throughput, average cycles per instruction (CPI), and L2 cache miss rate) are used to evaluate the work. The well-known computer architecture simulator, Gem5, is used to accomplish the work. Results show that ARM microprocessor outperforms x86 microprocessor in the most cases.