Guidelines for the design of data driven generic simulators for specific domains

Data-driven generic simulators have, for many years, been used to model a wide range of systems. Some such simulators are promoted as general purpose, while others are specific to particular problem domains. This paper considers how domain-specific data-driven simulators should be constructed using a modular approach which allows the simulator to be incrementally enhanced and ported easily to alternative computing environments. It also argues that generic simulators will not wholly replace simulation programming for specific applications.