GPSS

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This article is about the programming language. For the UK pipeline system, see Government Pipelines and Storage System.

General Purpose Simulation System (GPSS) (originally Gordon's Programmable Simulation System after creator Geoffrey Gordon. The name was changed when it was decided to release it as a product) is a discrete time simulation language, where a simulation clock advances in uniform discrete steps. A system is modelled as transactions enter the system and are passed from one service to another. This is particularly well suited for problems such as a factory. It was popular in the late 1960s and early 1970s but is little used today. GPSS is less flexible than simulation languages such as Simula and SIMSCRIPT II.5 that model a system with discrete events that are not constrained by a uniform time step.