Conclusion

In your computer architecture career, the statistics portion of gem5 is probably the most important single element of the simulator. In order to leverage it you will need to read code, and gain an appreciation for the nuances of the system that you are designing.

One important note to make is that when you look at the already implemented statistics, you could argue that how some of them are implemented is wrong. That is the job of a good scientist, is to look at the data you obtain and how it was obtained and communicate the nuances that you find therein. Its also quite important in industry, as you will find that many academic pursuits in architecture, that are implemented on silicon, end up getting turned off because the gains are not what was expected. So be careful, but have some fun implementign statistics in gem5!