0018-9162/02/$17.00 :copyright: 2002 IEEE68 ComputerAsim: A Performance Model FrameworkT he Compaq (formerly Digital) processor design teams that created the VAX and Alpha processors have a long history of developing models to predict the perfor- mance of proposed processor designs.Such predictions have become both more daunting and more critical as processor and system com- plexity has increased.Microprocessors now consist of several hundred million transistors. The interaction between the ha