Simulation of scientific and technical issues is becoming more and more complex and, thus, higher requirements for computing power for computer systems being utilized are demanded. To correspond to these requirements, new computer architectures are developed, possessing a high degree of parallelism. The simulation methods used become more and more complex, and the programming technical realization gets more complicated. The efficient realization of sophisticated simulation methods for innovative architectures becomes thus a complex and time-consuming process. Therefore, tools are needed to support the programmer of parallel and distributed applications. This contains - among others - the development of novel program languages, compiler and transformation tools, distributed runtime environments, and diverse visualization and information tools.