Dr. Jose M. Garrido
Department of Computer Science and Information Systems
Kennesaw State University

Object Oriented Modeling and The Process Interaction Approach to Simulation

Abstract

The following issues are discussed:
* Why is the process interaction approach important and more powerful than other simulation approaches?
* Why is object-oriented modeling is important and heavily used in process interaction simulation?
* Main applications that use OO modeling and process interaction simulation:
* Business-oriented problems (e.g., the barbershop system)
* Operating system behavior modeling and performance modeling (various aspects)
* Real-time systems modeling, scheduling, synchronization, concurrency, timing constraints, etc.
* See the OO Psim simulation Web page: http://science.kennesaw.edu/~jgarrido/psim.html
* The fundamental concepts of the process interaction approach to simulation and object-oriented modeling are explained in the book: "Practical Process Simulation Using Object-Oriented Techniques and C++", Jose M. Garrido, Artech House, Boston 1999.

Advantages of using Psim/PsimL as the supporting software tools for using process interaction simulation
* Psim and PsimL are object-oriented.
* Free to the academic institutions (downloadable from the Web).
* Software and materials continuously enhanced and updated
* Software available for various platforms (PCs, SPARC Sun workstations, DEC Alpha machines, soon for SGI workstations), and for the following operating systems: Windows (95/98/NT), Linux, Sun OS Unix,
OSF1, and soon for IRIX.)
* Most materials are also available on the Web.
* Relatively easy to use if acquainted with C++ and object-oriented programming.
* Users can decide to use only Psim (The C++ library), or also use PsimL (the OO simulation language) for higher-level coding.
* Support for using in courses in simulation, operating systems, and Real-time systems.
* Book that explains the process interaction approach to simulation and Psim/PsimL available. Upcoming new book that describes the new UML and OO simulation applied to OS for May or June 2000.

Current projects that use simulation or are related with the Psim/PsimL software:
* Enhancing the Psim/PsimL software with a portable graphics user interface.
* The development of the train-gate real-system using Psim and the Rational Unified Process (includes UML).

The main Web page for general information on the resources for the process interaction approach to simulation and for the Psim and PsimL software is: http://science.kennesaw.edu/~jgarrido/psim.html

There are other links with different simulation models and supporting material:
* The models used to study and simulate various aspects of operating systems (including simple performance modeling) is located in: http://science.kennesaw.edu/~jgarrido/os
* The train-gate real-time system model is also stored in the above URL, with the overall system description in: http://achtziger.tripod.com/csis4850

About the Speaker

Dr. Garrido is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Sciencce and Information Systems at Kennesaw State University.  He received a Ph.D. in Information Technology from the School of Information Technology and Engineering, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia in 1996.  His interests include System modeling and simulation with the process interaction approach and object-oriented techniques, Modeling and simulation of operating systems, Modeling and simulation techniques for real-time systems, Software development using object-oriented techniques and design methods (Booch, OMT, Entity-life modeling, UML and RT-UML), Software engineering approaches and programming environments, Design Methods for real-time systems, and Formal Specification Techniques for Real-time Systems.

For more information, contact Venu Dasigi.

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