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ALICE a multi-processor reduction machine for the parallel evaluation CF applicative languages

Authors:

John Darlington,

Mike ReeveAuthors Info & Claims

FPCA '81: Proceedings of the 1981 conference on Functional programming languages and computer architecture

Pages 65 - 76

https://doi.org/10.1145/800223.806764

Published: 18 October 1981 Publication History

Abstract

The functional or applicative languages have long been regarded as suitable vehicles for overcoming many of the problems involved in the production and maintenance of correct and reliable software. However, their inherent inefficiences when run on conventional von Neumann style machines have prevented their widespread acceptance. With the declining cost of hardware and the increasing feasibility of multi-processor architectures this position is changing, for, in contrast to conventional programs where it is difficult to detect those parts that may be executed, concurrently, applicative programs are ideally suited to parallel evaluation.

In this paper we present a scheme for the parallel evaluation of a wide variety of applicative languages and provide an overview of the architecture of a machine on which it may be implemented.

First we describe the scheme, which may be characterized as performing graph reduction, at the abstract level and discuss mechanisms that allow several modes of parallel evaluation to be achieved efficiently. We also show how a variety of languages are supported.

We then suggest an implementation of the scheme that has the property of being highly modular; larger and faster machines being built by joining together smaller ones. Performance estimates illustrate that a small machine (of the size that we envisage would form the basic building block of large systems) would provide an efficient desk-top personal applicative computer, while the larger versions promise very high levels of performance Indeed. The machine is designed to be ultimately constructed from a small number of types of VLSI component.

Finally we compare our approach with the other proposes schemes for the parallel evaluation of applicative languages and discuss planned future developments.

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ALICE a multi-processor reduction machine for the parallel evaluation CF applicative languages

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cover image ACM Conferences

FPCA '81: Proceedings of the 1981 conference on Functional programming languages and computer architecture

October 1981

228 pages

ISBN:0897910605

DOI:10.1145/800223

Chairmen:
Arvind,
Jack Dennis

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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Association for Computing Machinery

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Published: 18 October 1981

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