I'm using a simulator for my thesis and I've come across the term "Fast-forwarding" but I have found no definition anywhere in the documentation or online. From a pdf I've been reading about the simulator I am using (gem5), I've come across this section:
The gem5 simulator supports four different CPU models: AtomicSimple, TimingSimple, InOrder, and O3. AtomicSimple and TimingSimple are non-pipelined CPU models that attempt to fetch, decode, execute and commit a single instruction on every cycle. The AtomicSimple CPU is a minimal, single IPC CPU which completes all memory accesses immediately. This low overhead makes AtomicSimple a good choice for simulation tasks such as fast-forwarding. Correspondingly, the TimingSimple CPU also only allows one outstanding memory request at a time, but the CPU does model the timing of memory accesses.
Does anyone know what this term actually means?