GPSS for Microcomputers: A Software Review of GPSS/PC

SYNOPTIC ABSTRACT

Since its introduction in the early 1960's, the GPSS (General Purpose Simulation System) Computer simulation language has become a major vehicle for the implementation of discrete event Computer simulations. The availability of quality language processors, the suitability of GPSS for discrete event modeling applications, and the presence of well-written references (e.g., Bobillier Kahan and Probst (1976) and Schriber (1974)) have all contributed to the popularity of GPSS among analysts involved with discrete event simulations. GPSS dialects have been available on almost all mainframes, such as IBM 360/370's and PDP-20's, and many minicomputers, such as VAX-11 and Prime systems, for some time. GPSS/PC (Minuteman Software (1984a)), the subject of this review, extends the scope of this powerful tool to the IBM-PC and IBM-PC compatible microcomputers under MS-DOS 1.1 or MS-DOS 2.0 operating Systems.

Key Words and Phrases:

• GPSS
• GPSS/PC
• simulation
• discrete event simulation
• interactive simulation
• microcomputer simulation