Navigation: Home | Downloads | Getting SST | Documentation | Support
These instructions are intended to walk the user through a detailed set of steps to build and install the optional external components used by SST. It is intended for users with intermediate knowledge in the operation of Unix/Linux/OSX environments.
NOTE: The following instructions assume the user has completed the basic build steps for SST outlined in Detailed Build and Installation Instructions for SST.
The SST Release Notes identify what operating systems, compiler and external component combinations have been tested and proven to work with SST.
NOTE: Using combinations other than what is identified in the Release Notes may cause build failures and/or unexpected results.
A detailed list of elements provided with the SST distribution are available at SST Element Summary and SST Element Release Matrix.
If you encounter difficulties, go to the SST Support page.
NOTE: Building SST and its External Components can sometimes be error prone due to the sheer number of combinations of operating systems, compiler versions and external required components. It is STRONGLY recommended that users closely follow these instructions.
Refer to Detailed SST Build and Install Instructions for more information on system requirements, special instructions, example directories and additional tasks for users.
SST allows for a number of optional external packages. Some notes and hints for using these are included here.
These are optional external components for the SST-Core. They may provide additional features.
OPTIONAL EXTERNAL COMPONENT FOR SST-CORE - Used for HDF Formatting for SST Statistics
General Infomation:
Where to find:
Build Instructions:
1.
Assuming that the tarfile has been downloaded to $HOME/scratch/src, unarchive hdf5-1.10.5.tar.gz
$ cd $HOME/scratch/src
$ tar xfz hdf5-1.10..5.tar.gz
$ cd hdf5-1.10.5
2.
Set the home directory environment variable of the HDF5 installation.
$ export HDF5_HOME=$HOME/local/packages/HDF5
3.
Configure the build and installation of HDF5
$ ./configure --prefix=$HDF5_HOME --enable-cxx
4.
Build and Install HDF5
$ make
$ make check
$ make install
$ make check-install
5.
Configure SST-Core to use HDF5
$ cd <to SST-Core base directory>
$ ./configure <all other SST configure options> --with-hdf5=$HDF5_HOME
$ make install
These are optional external components for the SST-Elements. They may provide additional features for elements or they may be required to allow an element to be built.
OPTIONAL EXTERNAL COMPONENT
General Infomation:
Where to find:
Build Instructions:
1.
Assuming that the tarfile has been downloaded to $HOME/scratch/src, unarchive dramsim3.tar.gz
$ cd $HOME/scratch/src
$ tar xfz dramsim3-1.0.0.tar.gz
$ cd dramsim3-1.0.0
2.
Set the home directory environment variable of the DRAMsim3 installation.
$ export DRAMSIM3_HOME=$HOME/local/packages/dramsim3
3.
Build the DRAMsim3 library
$ mkdir build
$ cd build
$ cmake ..
$ make -j4
$ cd ..
4.
Install DRAMsim3 library
$ cp -r . $DRAMSIM3_HOME
5.
Configure SST-Elements to use DRAMsim3
$ cd <to SST-Elements base directory>
$ ./configure <all other SST configure options> --with-dramsim3=$DRAMSIM3_HOME
$ make install
OPTIONAL EXTERNAL COMPONENT - Required for Ariel Element
General Infomation:
Where to find:
Build Instructions:
- Instructions specific to Linux Operating Systems.
1.
Assuming that the tarfile has been downloaded to $HOME/scratch/src, unarchive pin
$ cd $HOME/scratch/src
$ tar xfz pin-external-3.31-98869-gfa6f126a8-gcc-linux.tar.gz
2.
Set the home directory environment variable of the PinTool installation.
$ export PIN_HOME=$HOME/local/packages/pin-external-3.31-98869-gfa6f126a8-gcc-linux
$ export INTEL_PIN_DIRECTORY=$PIN_HOME
3.
Configure SST-Elements to use PinTool.
$ cd <to SST-Elements base directory>
$ ./configure <all other SST-Elements configure options> --with-pin=$PIN_HOME
$ make install
OPTIONAL EXTERNAL COMPONENT - Used by MemHierarchy Element for optional enhanced features
General Infomation:
SST-8.0.0-release
of Goblin HMCSim.Where to find:
Build Instructions:
1.
Assuming that the zipfile has been downloaded to $HOME/scratch/src, unzip gc64-hmcsim-sst-8.0.0-release.zip
$ cd $HOME/scratch/src
$ unzip gc64-hmcsim-sst-8.0.0-release.zip
$ cd gc64-hmcsim-sst-8.0.0-release
2.
Set the home directory environment variable of the Goblin HMCSim installation.
$ export GOBLINHMCSIM_HOME=$HOME/local/packages/GoblinHMCSim
3.
Build Goblin HMCSim
$ make
4.
Install Goblin HMCSim library
$ ln -s `pwd` $GOBLINHMCSIM_HOME
5.
Configure SST-Elements to use Goblin HMCSim
$ cd <to SST-Elements base directory>
$ ./configure <all other SST configure options> --with-goblin-hmcsim=$GOBLINHMCSIM_HOME
$ make install
OPTIONAL EXTERNAL COMPONENT - Used by MemHierarchy Element for optional enhanced features
General Infomation:
Where to find:
Build Instructions:
1.
Ramulator must be cloned using Git, and a specific SHA must be used.
$ cd $HOME/scratch/src
$ git clone https://github.com/CMU-SAFARI/ramulator.git
$ cd ramulator
$ git checkout 7d2e72306c6079768e11a1867eb67b60cee34a1c
2.
Apply patches to the Ramulator source.
$ patch -p1 -i ramulator_sha_7d2e723_gcc48Patch.patch
$ patch -p1 -i ramulator_sha_7d2e723_libPatch.patch
3.
Set the home directory environment variable of the Ramulator installation.
$ export RAMULATOR_HOME=$HOME/local/packages/ramulator
4.
Build Ramulator
- Instructions specific to Linux Operating Systems.
$ make CXX=g++ libramulator.so
- Instructions specific to Mac OSX Operating Systems.
$ make libramulator.a
5.
Install Ramulator library
$ ln -s `pwd` $RAMULATOR_HOME
6.
Configure SST-Elements to use Ramulator
$ cd <to SST-Elements base directory>
$ ./configure <all other SST configure options> --with-ramulator=$RAMULATOR_HOME
$ make install
OPTIONAL EXTERNAL COMPONENT - Used by MemHierarchy Element for optional enhanced features
General Infomation:
Where to find:
Build Instructions:
NOTE: Ramulator 2 requires a minimum GCC version of 8.0.
1.
Select a location for Ramulator 2.
$ cd $HOME/local/packages
2.
Clone the Ramulator 2 repository
$ git clone https://github.com/CMU-SAFARI/ramulator2.git
$ cd ramulator2
$ export RAMULATOR2_HOME=`pwd`
3.
Select commit a6ee92f
$ git reset --hard a6ee92f
4.
Install a copy of sst_frontend.cpp
from the SST Elements source
code. NOTE: These instructions assume that the SST Elements source
code is located at $HOME/mysst/sst-elements
$ cp $HOME/mysst/sst-elements/src/sst/elements/memHierarchy/membackend/ramulator2/sst_frontend.cpp $RAMULATOR2_HOME/impl/external_wrapper/
4.
Patch Ramulator 2 to reference the added sst_frontend.cpp
$ cd $RAMULATOR2_HOME
$ sed -i.bak '20impl/external_wrapper/sst_frontend.cpp' ./src/frontend/CMakeLists.txt
6.
Configure Ramulator 2 build
$ mkdir build
$ cd build
$ cmake ..
5.
Build Ramulator 2
NOTE: “-j” option without a limiting argument can cause modestly
equipped systems to degrade in performance during the build to the
point of unusability. Consider providing a reasonable numeric argument
to -j to restrict the number of parallel jobs in the Ramulator 2 build.
$ make -j <number of parallel jobs>
6.
Finalize Ramulator 2 setup
$ cp ./ramulator2 ../ramulator2
$ cd ..
$ export PATH=$PATH:$PWD
$ export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=LD_LIBRARY_PATH:$PWD
$ export RAMULATOR2_HOME=`pwd`
7.
Configure SST-Elements to use Ramulator
$ cd <to SST-Elements base directory>
$ ./configure <all other SST configure options> --with-ramulator2=$RAMULATOR2_HOME
$ make install
CrossSim is a GPU-accelerated, Python-based crossbar simulator designed to model analog in-memory computing for neural networks and linear algebra applications.
NOTE: CrossSim requires a Python minimum version of 3.8.
Local user installation of CrossSim requires the creation of a Python virutal environment. CrossSim will install to this environment, therefore, in order to use CrossSim with SST, the virtual environment must be loaded. Additionally, CrossSim has dependencies on SciPy and NumPy.
1.
Confirm that Python version is >= 3.8
$ python3 --version
2.
Create a Python virtual environment. CrossSim will be installed here.
$ python -m venv $HOME/crosssim-venv
$ export CROSSSIM_VENV_DIR=$HOME/crosssim-venv
3.
Load/initialize the Python virtual environment.
NOTE: This action must be performed each time CrossSim is used with SST.
$ source $CROSSSIM_VENV_DIR/bin/activate
4.
Assuming that $HOME/scratch/src is created, fetch CrossSim and unarchive it.
$ cd $HOME/scratch/src
$ wget https://github.com/sandialabs/cross-sim/archive/refs/tags/v3.1.1.tar.gz
$ tar xfz v3.1.1.tar.gz
$ cd cross-sim-3.1.1
4.
Build and install CrossSim and its prerequisites
NOTE: Confirm that the Python environment is activated prior to issuing this command.
$ pip install scipy numpy
$ pip install .
5.
Finalize CrossSim install
CrossSim will be automatically detected by SST if the CrossSim Python virtual environment is activated.
OPTIONAL EXTERNAL COMPONENT - Used by Balar Element for simulation
- Instructions specific to Linux Operating Systems.
General Infomation:
NOTE Balar and GPGPUSim have recently undergone substantial updates. As of SST 14, some of the changes are still in flight. Please refer to the [Balar README](https://github.com/sstsimulator/sst-elements/src/sst/elements/balar/README.md] and/or the balar documentation pages for the latest installation instructions. Once the instructions are finalized, they will be replicated here.
OPTIONAL EXTERNAL COMPONENT - Used by Vanadis Element for compiling code for simulations
- Instructions specific to Linux Operating Systems.
General Infomation:
Where to find:
mipsel-linux-musl-cross.tgz
Installation Instructions:
1.
The musl compiler must be must be download and extracted and then added to the PATH
$ cd $HOME/scratch/src
$ wget https://musl.cc/mipsel-linux-musl-cross.tgz
$ tar xf mipsel-linux-musl-cross.tgz
$ export PATH=$PWD/mipsel-linux-musl-cross/bin:$PATH
OPTIONAL EXTERNAL COMPONENT for DNN accelerators
SST-STONNE is a cycle-level microarchitectural simulator for flexible DNN inference accelerators. This library is developed and maintained by a third-party here. More information is available on the SST Community page.
Installation Instructions:
1.
Clone the SST-STONNE element.
git clone https://github.com/stonne-simulator/sst-elements-with-stonne
2.
Copy the stonne element into your official SST-Elements source code. Assuming that your SST-Elements resides at $SST_ELEMENTS_HOME:
cp -r $HOME/scratch/src/sst-elements-with-stonne/src/sst/elements/sstStonne $SST_ELEMENTS_HOME/src/sst/elements
3.
Build and install SST-Elements as usual. You will need to run ./autogen.sh
prior to configuring and building.
cd $SST_ELEMENTS_HOME
./autogen.sh
./configure <CONFIGURE_OPTIONS>
make
make install
Using STONNE
sstStonne must be instantiated in the SST Python Configuration file, along with the memory hierarchy elements that will be used to model the memory hierarchy. The following examples, along with scripts to generate memory initialization files and calcuate memory address locations are provided. After running the generation script, remember to update the SST input script with the memory address locations and memory initialization file for each kernel to be launched.
sst-elements/src/sst/elements/sstStonne/tests/sst_stonne_conv.py
sst-elements/src/sst/elements/sstStonne/tests/gen_conv.py
sst-elements/src/sst/elements/sstStonne/tests/sst_stonne_gemm.py
sst-elements/src/sst/elements/sstStonne/tests/gen_gemm.py
sst-elements/src/sst/elements/sstStonne/tests/sst_stonne_bitmapSpMSpM.py
sst-elements/src/sst/elements/sstStonne/tests/gen_bitmapSpMSpM.py
sst-elements/src/sst/elements/sstStonne/tests/sst_stonne_csrSpMM.py
sst-elements/src/sst/elements/sstStonne/tests/gen_csrSpMM.py