Instruction set simulator

An instruction set simulator (ISS) is a simulation model, usually coded in a high-level programming language, which mimics the behavior of a mainframe or microprocessor by "reading" instructions and maintaining internal variables which represent the processor's registers.

Instruction simulation is a methodology employed for one of several possible reasons:

• To simulate the instruction set architecture (ISA) of a future processor to allow software development and test to proceed without waiting for the development and production of the hardware to finish. This is often known as "shift-left" or "pre-silicon support" in the hardware development field. A full system simulator or virtual platform for the future hardware typically includes one or more instruction set simulators.
• To simulate the machine code of another hardware device or entire computer for upward compatibility.

For example, the IBM 1401 was simulated on the later IBM/360 through use of microcode emulation.

• To monitor and execute the machine code instructions (but treated as an input stream) on the same hardware for test and debugging purposes, e.g. with memory protection (which protects against accidental or deliberate buffer overflow).
• To improve the speed performance—compared to a slower cycle-accurate simulator—of simulations involving a processor core where the processor itself is not one of the elements being verified; in hardware description language design using Verilog where simulation with tools like ISS can be run faster by means of "PLI" (not to be confused with PL/1, which is a programming language).