The SDC DAQSim simulation effort

In an effort to model the SDC data acquisition system, the DAQSim simulation effort was formed. This project used the MODSIM II simulation language to represent the flow of data from front-end models through an event builder to a processing farm, with attached storage. Trigger communications and event data flow control were fully modeled. The purpose of DAQSim was to determine or confirm the numbers, sizes, and speeds of the various buffers, links, processors, etc. in the data acquisition system, with better accuracy than spread-sheet estimations. This paper describes the history of the effort, the reasoning behind the key decisions, and state of the project since the SSC termination. All of the simulation models, documentation, and results are available to others for future studies