Verification of global coherence in a multi-node NUMA system

A computer program product residing on a computer readable medium for verifying cache coherence in a multi-node data processing system, comprising:

• computer code means for identifying transaction pairs in an activity trace generated by simulating the data processing system, wherein the transaction pairs include:
• a foreign node transaction (FNT) originating from a processor on a system bus of a first node of the data processing system and referencing a memory location associated with a second node;
• and, a home node transaction (HNT) representing a transaction resulting from the FNT that occurs on a system bus of the second node;
• computer code means for merging each of the transaction pairs to form a corresponding merged transaction (MT) wherein the merged transaction includes attributes of the FNT and the HNT;
• and computer code means for creating a modified activity trace by replacing each of the transaction pairs with its corresponding merged transaction, whereby the modified activity trace is suitable for cache coherence verification by a coherence checker.

A data processing system comprising a processor, a computer readable medium, input means, and output means, wherein the computer readable medium is configured with computer instructions for preparing an activity trace of a multi-node data processing system for a cache coherence checker, the computer instructions comprising:

• computer code means for identifying transaction pairs in the activity trace, wherein the transaction pairs include:
• a foreign node transaction (FNT) originating from a processor on a system bus of a first node of the data processing system and referencing a memory location associated with a second node;
• and, a home node transaction (HNT) representing a transaction resulting from the FNT that occurs on a system bus of the second node;
• computer code means for merging each of the transaction pairs to form a corresponding merged transaction (MT) wherein the merged transaction includes attributes of the FNT and the HNT;
• and
• computer code means for creating a modified activity trace by replacing each of the transaction pairs with its corresponding merged transaction, whereby the modified activity trace is suitable for cache coherence verification by a coherence checker.