Language and library support for practical PRAM programming

✍ Scribed by Christoph W. Keßler; Jesper Larsson Träff

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1999
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 264 KB
• Volume: 25
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0167-8191
• DOI: 10.1016/s0167-8191(98)00092-1

✦ Synopsis

We investigate the well-known Parallel Random Access Machine (PRAM) model of parallel computation as a practical parallel programming model. The two components of this project are a general-purpose PRAM programming language, called Fork95, and a library, called PAD, of fundamental, eciently implemented parallel algorithms and data structures. We outline the main features of Fork95 as they apply to the implementation of PAD, and describe the implementation of library procedures for pre®x-sums and sorting. The Fork95 compiler generates code for the SB-PRAM, a hardware emulation of the PRAM, which is currently being completed at the University of Saarbr ucken. Both language and library can immediately be used with this machine. The project is, however, of independent interest. The programming environment can help the algorithm designer to evaluate the practicality of new parallel algorithms, and can furthermore be used as a tool for teaching and communication of parallel algorithms.