Abstract: A method and apparatus are provided for optimizing performance of a computer system component design by performance analysis of a simulation of the design. The method of the present invention comprises providing the computer system component design to an analyzing apparatus and carrying out a simulation run of the design. During the simulation run, operation data is generated cycle by cycle, and the generated operation data is collected and stored in a log file. The log file is input to a parser and the operation data is sequentially parsed to produce parsed data. Statistical calculations are then performed on the parsed data, and the performance results are output to the designer in graphical form. The performance information can be used to enhance performance of the computer system component prior to its fabrication.