Computational Study Support for Problem-Solving Environments

This paper describes and evaluates mechanisms for supporting interactivity in the SimX parallel system for multi- experiment computational studies. SimX is built on top of the SCIRun modular problem-solving environment and enables users to interact at the level of entire computational studies, changing their inputs based on results from already run experiments. To support this usage model while also maximizing the size of studies that can be performed at interactive rates, SimX relies on three groups of mechanisms: (1) study-level visualization and steering mechanisms; (2) extensive reuse of results to improve both study- and experiment-level responsiveness; and (3) system-level mechanisms for checkpointing and a shared object layer, which enables the reuse. Evaluation using a SCIRun defibrillator device simulation code on a parallel cluster highlight the advantages of these mechanisms, demonstrating that they do in fact enable fairly sophisticated studies to be conducted at or close to interactive rates.