Parallel Implementation of a Single Assignment Language.
Abstract
The thesis describes a high-level computer programming language, called SAMPLE, and a parallel processing system to implement the language. SAMPLE belongs to the class of single-assignment languages, which have the property that statements are not necessarily executed in their order of appearance in the program; rather, each statement is triggered by the readiness of the data on which it depends. Because of this property, single-assignment languages are well adapted for parallel processing. Rules are given for compiling SAMPLE programs into machine-level instructions, and a machine organization is described to execute the resulting code. During execution of a program, many processors are active simultaneously, each with its own independent instruction stream. Expandability and graceful degradation are intrinsic properties of the system organization. Some experiments are described which simulate the behavior of the proposed system and compare it with a conventional, single-processor system. It is concluded that the proposed system offers a speed advantage over a conventional system, at the expense of increased processor costs and memory requirements. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 1971
- Accession Number
- AD0720329
Entities
People
- Donald Dean Chamberlin
Organizations
- Stanford University