SAS Simulation Studio 13.2 provides a graphical environment for building and working with discrete-event simulation models. Its most prominent new feature is the optional parallel mode for executing a simulation model. In parallel mode, replications that correspond to selected design points are executed in parallel on multiple computational cores on a single machine. You select parallel mode by choosing the Parallel Mode option from the Run menu or by clicking the Parallel Mode icon on the toolbar. You can specify the maximum number of cores to use in parallel mode in the SAS Simulation Studio Configuration dialog box.
In parallel mode, the Start, Augment, Pause, and Reset options on the toolbar and on the Run menu operate just as they do otherwise. Certain run-time features, however, are disabled: the simulation clock and replication counter, animation, interactive graphics, and trace messages. These capabilities are usually used for debugging purposes, and the parallel mode is intended to reduce execution time for a completed, debugged model. Log messages are still produced; they now indicate the relevant design point and replication. A progress bar displays the percentage of replications (across all selected design points) that have completed execution. Currently executing design points are highlighted in red in the Experiment window.
SAS Simulation Studio 13.2 also adds the Data Trimmer block, which helps you centrally manage the saving of simulated data. You can use the Data Trimmer block to notify any data collection block in the same simulation model (including those located in compound blocks or submodels) to clear its accumulated data at a specified point during the model run. Multiple blocks can be selected in the Data Trimmer block dialog box and notified simultaneously. An input port on the Data Trimmer block receives a Boolean signal; a true Boolean value causes the Data Trimmer block to notify all its selected blocks to clear their collected data. You can use the Data Trimmer block to, for example, trim data that accumulate during a nonstationary start-up period for the model, so that the simulated data that you save correspond to stationary operation of the system being modeled. The accumulated data can be in the form of individual data values or statistics that are calculated from simulated data.
Finally, in SAS Simulation Studio 13.2, the Formula block adds a control on the precision of its output numeric values. This is useful if the values that a Formula block produces need to be, for example, integers or two-digit decimals, because of how the values are interpreted and used elsewhere in the model. The integer value that you enter in the Result Precision field in the Formula block properties dialog box specifies the decimal precision of the numeric values that are produced. A value of zero for the Result Precision field rounds the numeric results to the nearest integer value, whereas a positive value rounds to the specified number of digits to the left of the decimal point, and a negative value rounds to the specified number of digits to the right of the decimal point.