A problem solving environment (PSE) is a completed, integrated and specialised computer software for solving one class of problems, combining automated problem-solving methods with human-oriented tools for guiding the problem resolution.
A PSE may also assist users in formulating problem resolution, formulating problems, selecting algorithm, simulating numerical value, viewing and analysing results.
Purpose of PSE
Many PSEs were introduced in the 1990s. They use the language of the respective field and often employ modern graphical user interfaces. The goal is to make the software easy to use for specialists in fields other than computer science.
PSEs are available for generic problems like data visualization or large systems of equations and for narrow fields of science or engineering like gas turbine design.
History
The Problem Solving Environment (PSE) released a few years after the release of Fortran and Algol 60. People thought that this system with high-level language would cause elimination of professional programmers. However, surprisingly, PSE has been accepted and even though scientists used it to write programs.
The Problem Solving Environment for Parallel Scientific Computation was introduced in 1960, where this was the first Organised Collections with minor standardisation.
The PSE parallelise and embed many individual numerical calculations in an industrial serial optimisation code. It is built in NAG's IRIS Explorer package to solve EHL and Parallelism problems and can use the gViz libraries, to run all the communication between the PSE and the simulation. It also uses MPI — part of the NAG libraries — which gives significantly quicker and better solutions by combining the maximum levels of continuation.
Grid-based PSEs for mobile devices
PSEs require substantial computing resources. Porting these environments to mobile devices presents technical challenges for developers.
Grid computing is seen as a solution to the rescue issues of PSEs for mobile devices. This is made possible through a "Brokering Service". This service is started by an initiating device that sends the necessary information for PSE to resolve task. The brokering service then breaks this down into subtasks that distributes the information to various subordinate devices that perform these subtasks.