Using the GoldSim Player as a Client

The Distributed Processing Module A specialized GoldSim module that allows you to use multiple computers connected over a network to share the computational burden of a Monte Carlo simulation. uses multiple copies of GoldSim running on multiple machines to share the computational burden of a Monte Carlo simulation. The GoldSim Player can be used as a Client A GoldSim executable that acts as a client that shares the computational burden when using the Distributed Processing Module. (of a Controller process) in such a simulation. This allows computers that do not have registered copies of GoldSim to still be used as a Client.

To launch the GoldSim Player in Client mode, you must run the Player from the command line using the "-dpclient" parameter. Typically, this would be done by selecting Run from the Windows Start menu, which displays the following dialog:

You must enter the full path to the GoldSim Player executable (which may, of course, be different than that shown above), followed by the "-dpclient" command line parameter.

You could accomplish the same thing by creating and running a shortcut to the GoldSim Player executable with the appropriate command line parameter:

In this particular case, the Player would be launched in Client mode and immediately minimized.

If you placed this shortcut in the StartUp directory of the machine, the GoldSim Player would be loaded in Client mode whenever the machine was booted. A Client requires approximately 6Mb of memory when it is loaded prior to being accessed by a Controller process Hence, the act of loading the Client will not significantly impact anyone who is using that particular machine. Moreover, once a Controller accesses the Client (and begins to send it realizations to process), the priority of the Client is lower than that of other processes running on the machine. As a result, although an active Client will slow the system down somewhat, the machine can still be used for other applications, with the GoldSim Client running in the background.

If you launch a Client which is not yet connected to a Controller, the following dialog will be displayed:

Pressing the X in the upper right-hand corner will terminate the Client process (close the GoldSim Client executable) so that it can no longer be accessed by a Controller. A Client can also be terminated remotely by the Controller.

It is not necessary that a GoldSim model file be present on the Client machine. When a simulation is started, the Controller transfers all necessary files to the Client.

Note : It is possible to run multiple Clients on a single multi-processor computer (one for each processor).