Object-Oriented Parallel Programming: Design and Development of an Object-Oriented Library for SPMD Programming

In the process of writing portable applications, one particular way of viewing the parallel programming activity is as an application-centered one. This paper reports on the object-oriented design of a library supporting such an approach. The library has been developed within C++ and implemented on the CM5. The code has been carefully written so that the library could easily be ported to any MIMD machine supporting C++. The library allows parallel program development in the SPMD style. It has been designed so that the compiler can perform a complete type checking of user programs. This was a major requirement: We wanted the library to provide facilities close to those one normally expects from a programming language (i.e. with compiled programming primitives). We were actually interested in checking how far it would be possible to go toward achieving such a goal via the natural object-oriented extension mechanisms available in C++. The present report brings evidence that this is quite achievable. The library consists of a set of four layers providing: threads, synchronous message passing, remote read/write facilities, and spread arrays and pointers.

ICSI Technical Report TR-94-011

Technical Report