Abstract
We evaluate UNITY – a computational model, specification language and proof system defined by Chandy and Misra [5] for the development of parallel and distributed programs – as a platform for simulation model specification and analysis. We describe a UNITY-based methodology for the construction, analysis and execution of simulation models. The methodology starts with a simulation model specification in the form of a set of coupled state transition systems. Mechanical methods for mapping the transition systems first into a set of formal assertions, permitting formal verification of the transition systems, and second into an executable program are described. The methodology provides a means to independently verify the correctness of the transition systems: one can specify properties formally that the model should obey and prove them as theorems using the formal specification. The methodology is illustrated through generation of a simulation program solving the machine interference problem using the Time Warp protocol on a distributed memory parallel architecture.
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Page, E.H., Abrams, M. Simulation Model Development and Analysis in UNITY. Annals of Operations Research 104, 181–212 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1013103406241
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1013103406241