Toward embedded qualitative simulation: a specialized computer architecture for QSim

Qualitative simulation is a key inference technique of model based reasoning that has found use in such areas as monitoring, fault diagnosis, and design. To advance embedded applications of the qualitative simulator QSim, we have developed a special purpose computer architecture designed to provide high performance, scalability, and increased portability to embedded computer platforms. To demonstrate our approach's suitability for embedded qualitative simulation, we have developed a prototype implementation on a heterogeneous multiprocessor system. As the article discusses, this prototype improves QSim's performance by two orders of magnitude.