HeNCE (Heterogeneous Network Computing Environment) is an X-window based software environment designed to assist scientists in developing parallel programs that run on a network of computers. HeNCE provides the programmer with a high level abstraction for specifying parallelism. HeNCE is based on a parallel programming paradigm where an application program can be described by a graph. Nodes of the graph represent subroutines and the arcs represent data dependencies. Individual nodes are executed under PVM. HeNCE is composed of integrated graphical tools for creating, compiling, executing, and analyzing HeNCE programs. HeNCE relies on the PVM system for process initialization and communication. The HeNCE programmer, however, will never explicitly write PVM code. During or after execution, HeNCE displays an event-ordered animation of application execution, enabling the visualization of relative computational speeds, processor utilization, and load imbalances.
Through HeNCE a scientist can easily decompose existing C or Fortran source code into pieces which can be executed in parallel over an existing collection of workstations or supercomputers. This approach allows the programmer to reuse existing programs and extract unused performance out of existing computers.
HeNCE also supports the graphical configuration of PVM hosts, assists in the generation of architecture-dependent object modules, and contains provisions for task scheduling based on user supplied cost matrices.
HeNCE is available from netlib via anonymous FTP: Use host netlib2.cs.utk.edu, login as anonymous, change directory to /hence. For more information about HeNCE, send e-mail to hence@cs.utk.edu.