Molecule: A Language Construct for Layered Development of Parallel Programs

  • Authors:
  • Zhiwei Xu;Kai Hwang

  • Affiliations:
  • Univ. of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand;Univ. of Southern California, Los Angeles

  • Venue:
  • IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering
  • Year:
  • 1989

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Abstract

A new language construct, called molecule, is described 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). It is concluded that high-level languages, augmented with the molecule construct, offer application flexibility, user friendliness, and efficiency in implementing parallel programs.