Section: Software and Platforms

SAMSON

A major objective of NANO-D is to try and integrate a variety of adaptive algorithms into a unified framework. As a result, NANO-D is developing SAMSON (Software for Adaptive Modeling and Simulation Of Nanosystems), a software platform aimed at including all developments from the group, in particular those described below.

The objective is to make SAMSON a generic application for computer-aided design of nanosystems, similar to existing applications for macrosystem prototyping (CATIA, SolidWorks, etc.).

The current architecture of SAMSON is visible in Figure 3 . The code is organized into four main parts: a) the Base (in which “Core” contains, in particular, the heart of the adaptive algorithms: signaling mechanisms specifically designed for SAMSON), b) the Software Development Kit (SDK: a subset of the base that will be provided to module developers), c) Modules, and d) the SAMSON application itself.

Similar to the concept of Mathematica toolboxes, for example, the goal has been to make it possible to personalize the user interface of SAMSON for potentially many distinct applications. For example, we may want to personalize the interface of SAMSON for crystallography, drug design, protein folding, electronics, material science, nano-engineering, etc., by loading different modules at startup, depending on the user application domain.