This paper proposes a new functional programming language called Sac (Single Assignment C) which tries to combine the best of two worlds: the efficiency and portability of C (or Fortran) and the concurrency deducable from the functional paradigm. The major objectives in the design of Sac comprise support for high performance concurrent scientific applications (number crunching), a module concept which allows for the integration of non-funtional components, and a syntax as close as possible to C. 1 Introduction Functional programming languages did not yet find a broad acceptance by application programmers outside the functional community. The reasons for this situation are manifold and differ depending on the field of application. Of primary interest in this paper are scientific applications involving complex manipulations of arrays. For this class of applications the following criteria are the most important ones for the choice of a suitable language: ffl availability of primitive a...

We present a new data structure, called a random-access list, that supports array lookup and update operations in O(log n) time, while simultaneously providing O(1) time list operations (cons, head, tail). A closer analysis of the array operations improves the bound to O(minfi; log ng) in the worst case and O(log i) in the expected case, where i is the index of the desired element. Empirical evidence suggests that this data structure should be quite efficient in practice. 1 Introduction Lists are the primary data structure in every functional programmer 's toolbox. They are simple, convenient, and usually quite efficient. The main drawback of lists is that accessing the ith element requires O(i) time. In such situations, functional programmers often find themselves longing for the efficient random access of arrays. Unfortunately, arrays can be quite awkward to implement in a functional setting, where previous versions of the array must be available even after an update. Since arra...

. We discuss why existing implementations of functional languages on MIMD-machines with distributed memory are slow. This is done by comparing the behavior of a functional program with a corresponding Occam program. The main reason is that functional languages give insufficient means to control parallelism and communication. Our approach is to support data parallelism by providing a set of primitives on arrays which allow the user to control the parallelism and communication on a high level, disabling problems like deadlocks. Only one unique version of an array may be referenced at a time. This restriction allows arrays to be updated in place and enables the user to control the space requirements of the program. The uniqueness of arrays is checked by the compiler. Experimental results demonstrate the efficiency of our data parallel functional language. 1 Introduction MIMD machines with distributed memory offer high computation power at relatively low costs. On the other hand, the corr...

This paper describes a general approach for automatic and accurate space and space-bound analyses for high-level languages, considering stack space, heap allocation and live heap space usage of programs. The approach is based on program analysis and transformations and is fully automatic. The analyses produce accurate upper bounds in the presence of partially known input structures. The analyses have been implemented, and experimental results con rm the accuracy. 1

Destructive array update optimization is critical for writing scientific codes in functional languages. We present set constraints for an interprocedural update optimization that runs in polynomial time. This is a multi-pass optimization, involving interprocedural flow analyses for aliasing and liveness. We characterize and prove the soundness of these analyses using smallstep operational semantics. We also prove that any sound liveness analysis induces a correct program transformation.

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We propose a new style of writing graph algorithms in functional languages which is based on an alternative view of graphs as inductively defined data types. We show how this graph model can be implemented efficiently, and then we demonstrate how graph algorithms can be succinctly given by recursive function definitions based on the inductive graph view. We also regard this as a contribution to the teaching of algorithms and data structures in functional languages since we can use the functional-style graph algorithms instead of the imperative algorithms that are dominant today. Keywords: Graphs in Functional Languages, Recursive Graph Algorithms, Teaching Graph Algorithms in Functional Languages

In recognition of the fundamental relation between regular arrays and systems of affine recurrence equations, the Alpha language was developed as the basis of a computer aided design methodology for regular array architectures. Alpha is used to initially specify algorithms at a very high algorithmic level. Regular array architecures can then be derived from the algorithmic specification using a transformational approach supported by the Alpha environment. This design methodology guarantees the final design to be correct by construction, assuming the initial algorithm was correct. In this paper, we address the problem of validating an initial specification. We demonstrate a translation methodolody which compiles Alpha into the imperative sequential language C. The C-code may then be compiled and executed to test the specification. We show how an Alpha program can be naively implemented by viewing it as a set of monolithic arrays and their filling functions, implemented usin...

this paper is for a generic functional language and requires no prior knowledge of PVS.

In this paper we describe the use of the certification-trail technique as the basis of a new hybrid framework for building formally verified software systems. Our technique involves formally verifying only a part of a software system; however, the technique yields a software system which still satisfies the most important correctness properties. Substantial savings in the overhead of software verification, and also in program running time are shown to be possible in comparison to traditional methods. We apply our technique to the problem of sorting since sorting represents one of the most basic operations in computer science, and a formally verified sorting certifier should have significant applicability. The results presented in this paper represent an enhancement of the certification-trail technique relative to the detection of incorrect computational output caused by software faults. Index terms: Sorting; formal program verification; software correctness; certification trails; prog...