Computational steering

The traditional cycle in simulation is to prepare input, execute a simulation, and to visualize the results as a post-processing step. However, more insight and a higher productivity can be achieved if these activities are done simultaneously. This is the underlying idea of Computational Steering: researchers change parameters of their simulation on the fly and immediately receive feedback on the effect. In this paper the Computational Steering Environment, CSE, developed at CWI is described. We discuss the requirements of computational steering environment, its relation with high performance computing and networking, and show an application of its use.