A language directed computer architecture for gpss
Jr. William W. Mettrey · 1981
Language directed computer design represents an attempt to overcome deficiencies inherent in conventinal von Neumann architectures concerning the acceptance and execution of high level languages. A language directed architecture closely reflects the operations and data structures of one or more high level languages. The functional design of a language directed architecture is approached by an analysis of the requirements of the data types of the language and the manner in which operations act upon them. The language is GPSS, so selected because it is probably the most widely used discrete simulation language, it is well defined, readily available, and yet highly dissimilar to existing computer architectures. The current state of the art of language directed computer design is first presented. An investigation of data structures applicable to the storage and manipulation of simulation event sets is then discussed. Next the design of the memories, processors, and interconnection approaches for both sequential and parallel GPSS machines is described. These architectures are implemented in the form of software simulators. The simulators are used to execute a number of GPSS models in order to demonstrate the validity of the designs and to compare the performance of the sequential and parallel approaches. Finally the results of the performance evaluation are presented and suggested directions for future research are discussed.