1. Molecule: A Language Construct for Layered Development of Parallel Programs.
- Author
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Zhiwei Xu and Kai Hwang
- Subjects
- *
MULTIPROCESSORS , *PARALLEL processing , *DISTRIBUTED computing , *COMPUTER software development , *PROGRAMMING languages , *COMPUTERS - Abstract
With the increasing demand for parallel processing and distributed computing, parallel programming languages are becoming indispensable. This paper presents a new language construct, called molecule, for the efficient implementation of algorithms on parallel computers. A molecule can be considered a procedure associated with a molecule type. Each molecule type characterizes a particular computation mode (sequential, pipelining, array processing, dataflow, multiprocessing, etc.). Basic concepts of molecule are introduced with a procedural language, called PAL. A concrete example is presented to illustrate layered software development using PAL on a multicomputer (the iPSC). The key message being conveyed is that high-level languages, augmented with the molecule construct, will offer application flexibility, user friendliness, and efficiency in implementing parallel programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 1989