High level abstrations for parallel computing

并行计算的高级抽象

• 批准号: 155467-2006
• 负责人: Singh, Ajit
• 金额: $ 1.33万
• 依托单位: University of Waterloo
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2008
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2008-01-01 至 2009-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=391788
• 关键词: level; abstrations; parallel; computing

Nowadays, even though there is an abundance of parallel computers around us in the form of multi-CPU PCs, shared-memory multiprocessors, and message-passing processor-networks, a majority of the programs are still being written for single processor computers. The current state of the art lacks parallel programming models and systems that are flexible, easy-to-use, and applicable to most of the common computer architectures. Researchers have been experimenting with high level parallel computing models that rely on new or extended languages, GUI based environments, pragmas, parallel patterns and skeletons for addressing these issues. This research proposes  a generic pattern based parallel programming model, called GPE, that: (a) supports parallel programming on shared-memory as well as message-passing computers; (b) is based on simple expressions, called Generic Pattern Expressions (GPEs), for instantiating common parallel structures and behaviors; (c) provides the required trade-off between parallelization effort and performance; (d) can be implemented in a common programming language (e.g., C++) without requiring any new language or language extensions; (e) supports user-written shared-memory or message-passing based new patterns. Our recent research work on parallel programming systems PAS and EPAS demonstrates that it is possible to design and implement an extensible pattern-library based parallel programming model and system while our work on Active Expressions shows the feasibility of instantiating common parallel behaviors without requiring any language extensions, preprocessing, or GUIs. Even though satisfying above-stated objectives (a) to (e) in a single research project may be a challenging proposition, it is worth pursuing and we believe, given certain recent advances in this research area, these may be feasible.

如今，尽管我们周围有大量以多 CPU PC、共享内存多处理器和消息传递处理器网络形式出现的并行计算机，但大多数程序仍然是为单处理器计算机编写的。目前的技术水平缺乏灵活、易于使用且适用于大多数常见计算机体系结构的并行编程模型和系统。研究人员一直在试验高级并行计算模型，这些模型依赖于新的或扩展的语言、基于 GUI 的环境、编译指示、并行模式和框架来解决这些问题。这项研究提出了一种基于通用模式的并行编程模型，称为 GPE，它： (a) 支持共享内存和消息传递计算机上的并行编程； (b) 基于称为通用模式表达式（GPE）的简单表达式，用于实例化常见的并行结构和行为； (c) 提供并行化工作和性能之间所需的权衡； (d) 可以用通用编程语言（例如，C++）来实现，而不需要任何新的语言或语言扩展； (e) 支持用户编写的共享内存或基于消息传递的新模式。我们最近在并行编程系统 PAS 和 EPAS 方面的研究工作表明，设计和实现基于可扩展模式库的并行编程模型和系统是可能的，而我们在 Active Expressions 方面的工作表明了实例化常见并行行为而不需要任何语言扩展、预处理或 GUI 的可行性。尽管在单个研究项目中满足上述目标（a）至（e）可能是一个具有挑战性的主张，但它值得追求，我们相信，鉴于该研究领域的某些最新进展，这些可能是可行的。