Computer simulator

Computer simulator

In computer science, a simulator is a software program to model a real-life situation on a computer so that it can be studied to see how the system behaves. By changing variables, performance predictions may be made about the behaviour of the system. A computer simulator can be either an Instruction Set Simulator or a full system simulator

Computer simulation has become a useful part of modeling many natural systems in physics, chemistry and biology, and human systems in economics and social science (the computational sociology) as well as in engineering to gain insight into the operation of those systems. A good example of the usefulness of using computers to simulate can be found in the field of network traffic simulation. In such simulations the model behaviour will change each simulation according to the set of initial parameters assumed for the environment. Computer simulations are often considered to be human out of the loop simulations.

Traditionally, the formal modeling of systems has been via a mathematical model, which attempts to find analytical solutions to problems which enables the prediction of the behaviour of the system from a set of parameters and initial conditions. Computer simulation is often used as an adjunct to, or substitution for, modeling systems for which simple closed form analytic solutions are not possible. There are many different types of computer simulation, the common feature they all share is the attempt to generate a sample of representative scenarios for a model in which a complete enumeration of all possible states of the model would be prohibitive or impossible. Several software packages exist for running computer-based simulation modeling that makes the modeling almost effortless and simple (e.g., Monte Carlo simulation and stochastic modeling like Risk Simulator).

It is increasingly common to hear simulations of many kinds referred to as "synthetic environments". This label has been adopted to broaden the definition of "simulation" to encompass virtually any computer-based representation.

See also