diff --git a/DRAMSys/simulator/src/controller/core/configuration/Configuration.cpp b/DRAMSys/simulator/src/controller/core/configuration/Configuration.cpp
index 69315241..19d8ca75 100644
--- a/DRAMSys/simulator/src/controller/core/configuration/Configuration.cpp
+++ b/DRAMSys/simulator/src/controller/core/configuration/Configuration.cpp
@@ -38,6 +38,7 @@
 #include "Configuration.h"
 #include "ConfigurationLoader.h"
 #include "boost/lexical_cast.hpp"
+#include "../../../common/xmlAddressdecoder.h"
 
 using namespace std;
 
@@ -139,8 +140,14 @@ void Configuration::setParameter(std::string name, std::string value)
         Debug = string2bool(value);
     else if (name == "NumberOfTracePlayers")
         NumberOfTracePlayers = string2int(value);
-    else if (name == "NumberOfMemChannels")
+    else if (name == "NumberOfMemChannels") {
         NumberOfMemChannels = string2int(value);
+	unsigned int maxNumberofMemChannels = xmlAddressDecoder::getInstance().amount["channel"];
+	if (NumberOfMemChannels > maxNumberofMemChannels) {
+            SC_REPORT_FATAL("Configuration", ("Invalid value for parameter " + name + ". Value is out of range. The maximum value according to the address mapping configuration file is " + std::to_string(maxNumberofMemChannels) + ".").c_str());
+            throw;
+	}
+    }
     else if (name == "ControllerCoreDisableRefresh")
         ControllerCoreDisableRefresh = string2bool(value);
     else if (name == "DynamicTemperatureSimulation")
diff --git a/DRAMSys/simulator/src/simulation/Simulation.cpp b/DRAMSys/simulator/src/simulation/Simulation.cpp
index 9b84334b..55bd4c0d 100644
--- a/DRAMSys/simulator/src/simulation/Simulation.cpp
+++ b/DRAMSys/simulator/src/simulation/Simulation.cpp
@@ -57,11 +57,14 @@ Simulation::Simulation(sc_module_name __attribute__((unused)) name, string pathT
 {
     SC_THREAD(stop);
 
+    // XXX: The xmlAddressDecoder MUST be initialized before calling the
+    // ConfigurationLoader because some information from the xmlAddressDecoder
+    // is needed to assure the coherence of the configuration.
     xmlAddressDecoder::Initialize(setup.addressmapping);
     xmlAddressDecoder::getInstance().print();
 
-    ConfigurationLoader::loadMemConfig(Configuration::getInstance(), setup.memconfig);//pathToResources + string("configs/memconfigs/") + setup.memconfig);
-    ConfigurationLoader::loadMemSpec(Configuration::getInstance(), setup.memspec);//pathToResources + string("configs/memspecs/") + setup.memspec);
+    ConfigurationLoader::loadMemConfig(Configuration::getInstance(), setup.memconfig);
+    ConfigurationLoader::loadMemSpec(Configuration::getInstance(), setup.memspec);
     ConfigurationLoader::loadSimConfig(Configuration::getInstance(), setup.simconfig);
     ConfigurationLoader::loadTemperatureSimConfig(Configuration::getInstance(), setup.temperature_simconfig);