Reverse code generation for parallel discrete event simulation

Abstract

Reverse computation has become a central notion in discrete event simulation over the last decade. It is not just a theoretical line of research, but an immensely practical one that is necessary to achieve high performance for large parallel discrete event simulations (PDES). The models that are implemented for PDES are of increasing complexity and size and require various language features to support abstraction, encapsulation, and composition when building a simulation model. In this paper we focus on parallel simulation models that are written in C++ and present an approach for automatically generating reverse code for C++. The strategy we have adopted for our approach is to first assure that we can correctly handle event methods that use the entire C++ language. Although a significant runtime overhead is introduced with our technique, the assurance that the reverse code is always generated fully automatically is an enormous win that can open the door to routine optimistic simulation with models that can be implemented using the entire C++ language.