diff --git a/src/base/output.cc b/src/base/output.cc
index ce1b49a82..516a1d05a 100644
--- a/src/base/output.cc
+++ b/src/base/output.cc
@@ -77,9 +77,11 @@ OutputDirectory::checkForStdio(const string &name) const
 
 ostream *
 OutputDirectory::openFile(const string &filename,
-                          ios_base::openmode mode)
+                          ios_base::openmode mode, bool no_gz)
 {
-    if (filename.find(".gz", filename.length()-3) < filename.length()) {
+    bool gz = !no_gz;
+    gz = gz && filename.find(".gz", filename.length()-3) < filename.length();
+    if (gz) {
         ogzstream *file = new ogzstream(filename.c_str(), mode);
         if (!file->is_open())
             fatal("Cannot open file %s", filename);
@@ -153,7 +155,7 @@ OutputDirectory::resolve(const string &name) const
 }
 
 ostream *
-OutputDirectory::create(const string &name, bool binary)
+OutputDirectory::create(const string &name, bool binary, bool no_gz)
 {
     ostream *file = checkForStdio(name);
     if (file)
@@ -162,7 +164,7 @@ OutputDirectory::create(const string &name, bool binary)
     string filename = resolve(name);
     ios_base::openmode mode =
         ios::trunc | (binary ? ios::binary : (ios::openmode)0);
-    file = openFile(filename, mode);
+    file = openFile(filename, mode, no_gz);
 
     return file;
 }
diff --git a/src/base/output.hh b/src/base/output.hh
index ef628882d..67e6ecb18 100644
--- a/src/base/output.hh
+++ b/src/base/output.hh
@@ -86,10 +86,13 @@ class OutputDirectory
      *
      * @param filename file to open
      * @param mode attributes to open file with
+     * @param no_gz true to disable opening the file as a gzip compressed output
+     *     stream; false otherwise
      * @return stream pointer to opened file; will cause sim fail on error
      */
     std::ostream *openFile(const std::string &filename,
-                        std::ios_base::openmode mode = std::ios::trunc);
+                        std::ios_base::openmode mode = std::ios::trunc,
+                        bool no_gz = false);
 
     /**
      * Sets name of this directory.
@@ -111,9 +114,12 @@ class OutputDirectory
      * @param name name of file to create (without this directory's name
      *          leading it)
      * @param binary true to create a binary file; false otherwise
+     * @param no_gz true to disable creating a gzip compressed output stream;
+     *     false otherwise
      * @return stream to the opened file
      */
-    std::ostream *create(const std::string &name, bool binary = false);
+    std::ostream *create(const std::string &name, bool binary = false,
+                         bool no_gz = false);
 
     /**
      * Closes a file stream.
diff --git a/src/sim/pseudo_inst.cc b/src/sim/pseudo_inst.cc
index d4e2085df..fb19b21b1 100644
--- a/src/sim/pseudo_inst.cc
+++ b/src/sim/pseudo_inst.cc
@@ -565,13 +565,13 @@ writefile(ThreadContext *tc, Addr vaddr, uint64_t len, uint64_t offset,
 
     if (offset == 0) {
         // create a new file (truncate)
-        os = simout.create(filename, true);
+        os = simout.create(filename, true, true);
     } else {
         // do not truncate file if offset is non-zero
         // (ios::in flag is required as well to keep the existing data
         //  intact, otherwise existing data will be zeroed out.)
         os = simout.openFile(simout.directory() + filename,
-                            ios::in | ios::out | ios::binary);
+                            ios::in | ios::out | ios::binary, true);
     }
     if (!os)
         panic("could not open file %s\n", filename);