Abstract

We describe programming language constructs that facilitate the application of modular design techniques in parallel programming. These constructs allow us to isolate resource management and processor scheduling decisions from the specification of individual modules, which can themselves encapsulate design decisions concerned with concurrency, communication, process mapping, and data distribution. This approach permits development of libraries of reusable parallel program components and the reuse of these components in different contexts. In particular, alternative mapping strategies can be explored without modifying other aspects of program logic. We describe how these constructs are incorporated in two practical parallel programming languages, PCN and Fortran M. Compilers have been developed for both languages, allowing experimentation in substantial applications. Keywords: modularity; parallel programming; programming languages; program composition; code reuse; virtual co...

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