| Download SynSim | Read the tutorial | Browse source code | Read the POD |
| Version 1.0.1 | Last update: Fri Aug 13 16:18:44 BST 2004 | ||
SynSim is available from CPAN as Simulation::Automate.
SynSim
SynSim is my commandline Perl simulation automation tool. It runs a DOE (design of experiments) for your favourite simulator, and can postprocess the simulation output into nice plots
What can it do for you?
SynSim makes setting up and running DOE's very easy. Any task that requires a large number of simulations to be run in an automated way will benefit from using SynSim.
Suppose you have a network simulator, and you need to run a complete characterisation of the performance of the network under different loads, with different traffic types and different topologies. Or you have a SPICE simulator and you need to characterise an operational amplifier. Then it might be nice to have a tool that automates this for you, and that is exactly what SynSim does.
What do you need?
To be able to use SynSim, your simulator must:
- work on command line. Any Unix-like system will do (as long as it runs Perl :-). I've tested it on Linux, Solaris and Mac OS X.
- accept an ASCII input file
- write to an output file with a chosen name. If the name is fixed, you can always write a thin wrapper that will rename the output file to the chosen name once the simulation is finished.
- generate ASCII output. This is not a must, it just makes life a lot easier. You'll have to use a separate postprocessor if the output is binary.
How does it work?
SynSim is template-driven. It uses templates for your simulation type and/or device type (e.g. a frequency analysis on a MOS transistor). You create these templates by replacing values for parameters with names in a format of your choice (I use names in uppercase with a leading underscore, but any format will do). The values for these parameters are specified in a data file. SynSim allows lists of values for every parameter in the data file, and loops over all combinations of all parameters. So, if you specify 3 values for network traffic type, 5 load values, 8 buffer depths, then SynSim will run 120 simulations. The data file also contains configuration variables to tell SynSim where to look for input data and what to do with output data.
Is there a GUI frontend?
Not at the moment. There was one in Gtk-1.2, but it was never completely finished, and now it's obsolete. But it works after a fashion, so here it is.
Where can I get more information?
Read the documentation for all details.