MATLAB Extensions and Compiler Techniques for High-Performance Computing

目前，MatLab已成为最流行的科学计算快速原型语言。像MATLAB这样的高级数学语言极大地简化了程序开发。遗憾的是，这种简化往往是以牺牲有效执行为代价的。如今，MATLAB程序通常是在顺序机器上解释的。因此，与在并行高性能计算机上编译的Fortran程序相比，这些程序的性能受到了影响。这个项目的目标是开发和评估用于编译MATLAB和类似交互语言的语言扩展、运行时库和工具，以便在从单处理机工作站到高度并行的分布式系统的各类目标机器上有效地执行。该项目的技术主旨是开发重构编译器技术，使其能够将MATLAB代码翻译成与熟练的FORTRAN程序员手写代码竞争的顺序或并行目标代码。这项工作将建立在调查人员之前的工作基础上，并将利用猎鹰系统(在伊利诺伊州开发)的现有软件模块。编译器将接受并行扩展，并将能够自动将顺序的MATLAB循环转换为并行形式。编译器将转换代码以增强局部性，并从密度计算生成高效的稀疏代码。这种转换是必要的，因为MatLab代码通常以密集的形式表示稀疏计算。调查人员还将考虑将一些编译器模块整合到解释器中，以进行即时重组。

MATLAB has become the most popular rapid prototyping language forscientific computing. Highlevel mathematical languages like MATLABdramatically simplify program development. Unfortunately, thissimplification often has come at the expense of efficient implementation.Today, MATLAB programs are usually interpreted on sequential machines.Thus, the performance of these programs suffers in comparison with Fortranprograms compiled on parallel high-performance computers. The objective ofthis project is to develop and evaluate language extensions, run-timelibraries, and tools for compiling MATLAB and similar interactive languagesfor efficient execution on classes of target machines ranging fromuniprocessor workstations to highly-parallel distributed systems.The technical thrust of this project is to develop restructuring compilertechnology that will enable the translation of MATLAB codes into sequentialor parallel object code that is competitive with handwritten code producedby skillful FORTRAN programmers. The work will build on previous work bythe investigators and will take advantage of existing software modules fromthe Falcon system (developed at Illinois). The compiler will acceptparallel extensions and will be able to automatically translate sequentialMATLAB loops into parallel form. The compiler will transform the code toenhance locality and generate efficient sparse code from densecomputations. This transformation is necessary because MATLAB codes usuallyrepresent sparse computations in dense form. The investigators will alsoconsider incorporating some of the compiler modules into the interpreterfor just-in-time restructuring.