NHSE Software Catalog

Split-C

url

ftp://ftp.cs.berkeley.edu/ucb/CASTLE/Split-C/

version

1.2

abstract

Split-C is a parallel extension of the C programming language that
supports efficient access to a global address space on current distributed
memory multiprocessors. It retains the "small language" character of C
and supports careful engineering and optimization of programs by
providing a simple, predictable cost model. This is in stark contrast to
languages that rely on extensive program transformation at compile time
to obtain performance on parallel machines. Split-C programs do what
the programmer specifies; the compiler takes care of addressing and
communication, as well as code generation. Thus, the ability to exploit
parallelism or locality is not limited by the compiler's recognition
capability, nor is there need to second guess the compiler
transformations while optimizing the program. The language provides a
small set of global access primitives and simple parallel storage layout
declarations. These seem to capture most of the useful elements of
shared memory, message passing, and data parallel programming in a
common, familiar context.

description

http://http.cs.berkeley.edu:80/public/parallel/castle/split-c/

reference

http://http.cs.berkeley.edu:80/public/parallel/castle/split-c/

keywords

parallel programming language

environment

Platforms:
Thinking Machines CM-5
Intel Paragon
IBM SP-2
Meiko CS-2

All versions are built using the Free Software Foundation's GCC and the
message passing systems available on each machine.

comments

under development on the Cray T3D