Bilingual parallel programming

Conference · Mon Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1990

OSTI ID:6223945

Foster, I; Overbeek, R

Numerous experiments have demonstrated that computationally intensive algorithms support adequate parallelism to exploit the potential of large parallel machines. Yet successful parallel implementations of serious applications are rare. The limiting factor is clearly programming technology. None of the approaches to parallel programming that have been proposed to date -- whether parallelizing compilers, language extensions, or new concurrent languages -- seem to adequately address the central problems of portability, expressiveness, efficiency, and compatibility with existing software. In this paper, we advocate an alternative approach to parallel programming based on what we call bilingual programming. We present evidence that this approach provides and effective solution to parallel programming problems. The key idea in bilingual programming is to construct the upper levels of applications in a high-level language while coding selected low-level components in low-level languages. This approach permits the advantages of a high-level notation (expressiveness, elegance, conciseness) to be obtained without the cost in performance normally associated with high-level approaches. In addition, it provides a natural framework for reusing existing code.

• Research Organization: Argonne National Lab., IL (USA)
• Sponsoring Organization: DOE/ER
• DOE Contract Number: W-31109-ENG-38
• OSTI ID: 6223945
• Report Number(s): CONF-9008181-1; ON: DE91006030
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS
990200* -- Mathematics & Computers
ALGORITHMS
MATHEMATICAL LOGIC
PARALLEL PROCESSING
PROGRAMMING
PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES