An evaluation of DEVS simulation tools

DEVS is a popular formalism for modelling complex dynamic systems using a discrete-event abstraction. Due to its popularity, and simplicity of the simulation kernel, a number of tools have been constructed by academia and industry. But each of these tools has distinct design goals and a specific programming language implementation. Consequently, each supports a specific set of formalisms, combined with a set of features. Performance differs significantly between different tools. We provide an overview of the current state of eight different DEVS simulation tools: ADEVS, CD++, DEVS-Suite, MS4 Me, PowerDEVS, PythonPDEVS, VLE, and X-S-Y. We compare supported formalisms, compliance, features, and performance. This paper aims to help modellers on deciding which tool to use to solve their specific problem. It further aims to help tool builders, by showing the aspects of their tool that could be extended in future versions of their tool.