NHSE Software Catalog

Sisal - A High Performance, Portable, Parallel Programming Language

url

ftp://sisal.llnl.gov/pub/sisal

abstract

The objectives of the Sisal Language Project are to develop
high-performance functional compilers and runtime systems to
simplify the process of writing scientific programs on parallel
supercomputers and to help programmers develop functional
scientific applications.
Functional languages, such as Sisal, promote the construction of
correct parallel programs by isolating the programmer from the
complexities of parallel processing. Based on the principles of
mathematics, Sisal exposes implicit parallelism through data
independence and guarantees determinate results.
A Sisal source program is translated into one or more machine
independent dataflow graphs which contain all the information
regarding the input/output dependencies among the operators that
make up the program. These dependencies constitute the only
inhibitions to parallel execution. The Optimizing Sisal Compiler can
make judgements about how to partition a program for parallel
execution based on these graphs, which contain complete knowledge
of the program's potential parallism.

environment

In general, Sisal and its support software run under the Unix operating
System on any single- or multiple-processor computer system that
operates under the shared memory programming model. Mature Sisal
systems exist for the following systems:

CRAY 2, X/MP, Y/MP, and C-90
SGI 340 Iris
Convex C2
Sequent Symmetry
Encore Multimax
Sun and Sparc
RS6000
IBM PC
Macintosh.

Prototype systems exist or are in work for the Intel Paragon and nCube
2000.

keywords

functional language; parallel programming language;
dependence analysis

description

http://www.llnl.gov/sisal/SisalHomePage.html

contact

Tom DeBoni / deboni@llnl.gov

contact

Tom DeBoni / deboni@llnl.gov