An Overview of Dino -- A New Language for Numerical Computation on Distributed Memory Multiprocessors
Abstract
The authors briefly discuss the design of a new programming language, called DINO, for programming parallel numerical algorithms on distributed memory multiprocessors. A significant difficulty with most current approaches to programming such computers is that interprocess communication and process control must be specified explicitly through messages, thereby making the parallel program difficult to write, debug, and understand. The authors' approach is to add several high-level constructs to the standard C programming language that allows the programmer to describe the parallel algorithm to the computer in a natural way, similar to the way in which the algorithm designer might informally describe the algorithm. These constructs include the specification of a data structure of virtual processors that is appropriate for the problem, and the ability to map data and procedures to this virtual parallel machine. Parallelism is achieved through a concurrent procedure call that utilizes these data and procedure mappings. All the necessary interprocess communication and process control results implicitly through these constructs. The paper includes a sample DINO program for parallel solution of Poisson's Equation.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 01, 1988
- Accession Number
- ADA446132
Entities
People
- Matthew Rosing
- Robert B. Schnabel
Organizations
- University of Colorado Boulder