Implementing an energy/economy model on a microcomputer: from the IBM 3033 to the IBM 5150

Conference · Tue Nov 01 04:00:00 EST 1983

OSTI ID:5631174

Minasi, M

The work of Brookhaven National Laboratory's Energy Model Development Group, in Washington, DC, requires use of the Department of Energy's IBM 3033 mainframe computer for large-scale modeling and analysis. Additionally, the group has acquired several IBM 5150 personal computers (PC) for word processing, intelligent terminal applications, and graphics. In February of 1983, a vendor announced a version of FORTRAN IV running on the PC under the operating system most used in the group, MS-DOS. As an analyst in the group and therefore a user of this microcomputer FORTRAN, I wanted to know how powerful the implementation of FORTRAN is, and how transportable some of the group's mainframe FORTRAN models are to the microcomputer using this FORTRAN. To explore this, I converted a small macroeconomic model from the IBM mainframe to the micro. In the process, I learned about that version of microcomputer FORTRAN, and made some comparisons of resource use in the PC and the 3033 environments. I examined the following questions: Is run time a significant constraint. Is main/secondary memory a significant constraint. How much human intervention does conversion require. In sum, is conversion practical. This paper describes that effort, and relates the answers that I found. Section I describes the model converted. Section II describes the language versions on the micro and the mainframe. Section III describes the conversion process, and suggests a general method for conversion. Section IV discusses integration with other microcomputer programs, and Section V contains conclusions. The model chosen for conversion was the ''Mini-Macro'' Model, the macroeconomic response component of the Energy Information Administration's Integrated Future Forecasting System. It was chosen mainly because it is small and runs quickly, and is written in standard FORTRAN. 2 figs., 2 tabs.

• Research Organization: Brookhaven National Lab., Upton, NY (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-76CH00016
• OSTI ID: 5631174
• Report Number(s): BNL-35959; CONF-831189-3; ON: DE85010953
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
290100* -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Energy Analysis & Modeling
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
COMPUTERS
CORRELATIONS
ECONOMETRICS
ECONOMICS
ECONOMY
ELECTRONIC CIRCUITS
ENERGY ANALYSIS
ENERGY MODELS
ENERGY POLICY
FORTRAN
GOVERNMENT POLICIES
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
MICROELECTRONIC CIRCUITS
MICROPROCESSORS
PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES
SIMULATION
USES