SUPPORTING A SIMULATION ENVIRONMENT WITH OPENSIM

This paper presents the design, implementation, and usage of OpenSim. OpenSim provides new tools and integrates existing tools into an envir onment in order to establish a comprehensive facility for performing s imulation work. First, OpenSim provides a graphical user interface for creating input files for simulations and for managing output files pr oduced from simulations. Second, tools are provided to help a user eas ily generate plots from sets of output files associated with a simulat ion project. Third, OpenSim addresses a common problem for many simula tion users, namely, lack of computing capacity to serve the jobs. In o rder to solve this problem OpenSim integrates Candor, an existing syst em that clusters idle workstations into a processor bank, into its env ironment. Through Condor, users have access to a large amount of compu ting capacity without interfering with the local usage of workstations by their owners. Finally, since users often plan their schedules acco rding to the deadlines required for their jobs, openSim enhances Condo r so that users call request jobs to be scheduled within a deadline. T herefore, a user can expect that the ammount of computing capacity req uired for a simulation project will be available before a specified de adline.