Simulation (computer science)

In theoretical computer science a simulation is a relation between state transition systems associating systems that behave in the same way in the sense that one system simulates the other.

Intuitively, a system simulates another system if it can match all of its moves.

The basic definition relates states within one transition system, but this is easily adapted to relate two separate transition systems by building a system consisting of the disjoint union of the corresponding components.