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Characterization of VAX Macsyma

Authors:

John K. Foderaro and

Richard J. FatemanAuthors Info & Claims

SYMSAC '81: Proceedings of the fourth ACM symposium on Symbolic and algebraic computation

August 1981

Pages 14 - 19

https://doi.org/10.1145/800206.806364

Published: 05 August 1981 Publication History

Abstract

The algebraic manipulation system Macsyma [Grou77, Fate80] has been running for over a year on Digital Equipment Corp. VAX-11 large-address-space medium-scale computers [Stre78]. In order to run Macsyma in this environment, a Lisp system for the VAX, FRANZ LISP[Fode50], was constructed at Berkeley. The goal of running Macsyma provided direction and motivation and is partially responsible for the rapid development of the Lisp system.

Because Lisp is a high level language there are many decisions to be made about the internal framework of the system. Efforts to increase efficiency require that we be able to characterize the demands of a large, compiled, Lisp system. Fortunately, the VAX/UNIX operating system provides useful tools for determining such characteristics. This paper presents some of our data and related analysis.

References

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[2]

Henry G. Baker, "A Note of the Optimal Allocation of Spaces in Maclisp," MIT AI Working paper 142 (March 1977).

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Douglas W. Clark and C. Cordell Green, "An Empirical Study of List Structure in Lisp," CACM20(2) pp. 78-88 (February 1977).

Digital Library

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Richard J. Fateman, Addendum to the Macsyma Reference Manual for the VAX. 1980.

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J. P. Fitch and A. C. Norman, "Implementing LISP in a High-Level Language," Software-Practice and Experience 7 pp. 713-725 (1977).

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Characterization of VAX Macsyma

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cover image ACM Conferences

SYMSAC '81: Proceedings of the fourth ACM symposium on Symbolic and algebraic computation

August 1981

248 pages

ISBN:0897910478

DOI:10.1145/800206

Copyright © 1981 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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SIGSAM: ACM Special Interest Group on Symbolic and Algebraic Manipulation

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Published: 05 August 1981

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Cited By

Chang Tvan Hulzen JWang P(2005)Code generation and optimization for finite element analysisEUROSAM 8410.1007/BFb0032846(237-247)Online publication date: 10-Jun-2005
https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0032846
Wang P(2005)Taking advantage of symmetry in the automatic generation of numerical programs for finite element analysisEUROCAL '8510.1007/3-540-15984-3_332(572-582)Online publication date: 8-Jun-2005
https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-15984-3_332
Char BGeddes KGentleman WGonnet G(2005)The design of Maple: A compact, portable, and powerful computer algebra systemComputer Algebra10.1007/3-540-12868-9_95(101-115)Online publication date: 29-May-2005
https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-12868-9_95
Wang P(2005)Hacijan's algorithm in VAXIMA: improvements and difficultiesComputer Algebra10.1007/3-540-11607-9_16(135-143)Online publication date: 28-May-2005
https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-11607-9_16
Lee WChang J(2004)A garbage collection policy based on empirical behaviorInformation Sciences: an International Journal10.1016/j.ins.2003.05.014167:1-4(129-146)Online publication date: 2-Dec-2004
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1016/j.ins.2003.05.014
Norman AFitch JEngeler ECaviness B(1996)Memory tracing of algebraic calculationsProceedings of the 1996 international symposium on Symbolic and algebraic computation10.1145/236869.236916(113-119)Online publication date: 1-Oct-1996
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/236869.236916
Abdullahi SMiranda ERingwood G(1992)Collection schemes for distributed garbageMemory Management10.1007/BFb0017183(43-81)Online publication date: 1992
https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0017183
Fateman R(1991)Canonical representations in Lisp and applications to computer algebra systemsProceedings of the 1991 international symposium on Symbolic and algebraic computation10.1145/120694.120750(360-369)Online publication date: 1-Jun-1991
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/120694.120750
Nuth PHalstead R(1989)A study of LISP on a multiprocessor preliminary versionACM SIGPLAN Lisp Pointers10.1145/1317258.13172602:3-4(15-32)Online publication date: 1-Jan-1989
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1317258.1317260
Ungar DJackson F(1988)Tenuring policies for generation-based storage reclamationACM SIGPLAN Notices10.1145/62084.6208523:11(1-17)Online publication date: 1-Jan-1988
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/62084.62085
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