A computer architecture simulator is a program that simulates the execution of computer architecture.
Computer architecture simulators are used for the following purposes:
- Lowering cost by evaluating hardware designs without building physical hardware systems.
- Enabling access to unobtainable hardware.
- Increasing the precision and volume of computer performance data.
- Introducing abilities that are not normally possible on real hardware such as running code backwards when an error is detected or running in faster-than-real time.