Simulation Environments

In the paper it is discussed that in systems simulation nowadays a simulator is becoming a synonym for a computer provided with a simulation environment, i.e. a programming environment dedicated to simulation. A simulation environment is defined as a programming environment of a computer, that is dedicated to systems simulation and that takes care for a flexible and intelligent interfacing between a user (i.e. the experimenter) and the system to be experimentally studied. The tasks a simulator has to support are depicted by a discussion about simulation studies in Research & Development. It is made clear that a simulation environment has to perform extra tasks in comparison to a normal programming environment of a computer: description, modelling, experimentation, knowledge handling, reporting. Several of these tasks ask for powerful and fast computers. An outline of a simulation environment is given. Implications with respect to hardware and software are discussed. It is argued that special-purpose simulators will be constructed as a general-purpose simulator provided with a special-purpose simulation environment rather than as specially hardware designed simulators.