We survey parallel programming models and languages using 6 criteria [:] should be easy to program, have a software development methodology, be architecture-independent, be easy to understand, guranatee performance, and provide info about the cost of programs. ... We consider programming models in 6 categories, depending on the level of abstraction they provide.

Abstract Building a cost calculus for a parallel program development environment is difficult because of the many degrees of freedom available in parallel implementations, and because of difficulties with compositionality. We present a strategy for building cost calculi for skeleton-based programming languages which can be used for derivational software development and which deals in a pragmatic way with the difficulties of composition. The approach is illustrated for the Bird-Meertens theory of lists, a parallel functional language with an associated equational transformation system. Keywords: functional programming, parallel programming, program transformation, cost calculus, equational theories, architecture independence, Bird-Meertens formalism.

this document without fee provided it is copied in its entirety and this notice remains attached. the computation and communication of an operation on the data type are arranged. That's a job for the implementer and compiler writer. So there's a separation of concerns at just the right level --- programmers think about monolithic operations on data types, while implementers worry about how to make them happen. This provides architecture independence. If the target machine is replaced during the night by some new machine, even a completely different architecture, there is no need to alter the software. The differences between machines can be hidden by the compiler.

... This paper presents a survey of programming languages and systems for prototyping concurrent applications to review the state of the art in this area. The surveyed approaches are classified with respect to the prototyping process