40,870 research outputs found
Continuation-Passing C: compiling threads to events through continuations
In this paper, we introduce Continuation Passing C (CPC), a programming
language for concurrent systems in which native and cooperative threads are
unified and presented to the programmer as a single abstraction. The CPC
compiler uses a compilation technique, based on the CPS transform, that yields
efficient code and an extremely lightweight representation for contexts. We
provide a proof of the correctness of our compilation scheme. We show in
particular that lambda-lifting, a common compilation technique for functional
languages, is also correct in an imperative language like C, under some
conditions enforced by the CPC compiler. The current CPC compiler is mature
enough to write substantial programs such as Hekate, a highly concurrent
BitTorrent seeder. Our benchmark results show that CPC is as efficient, while
using significantly less space, as the most efficient thread libraries
available.Comment: Higher-Order and Symbolic Computation (2012). arXiv admin note:
substantial text overlap with arXiv:1202.324
The use of field-programmable gate arrays for the hardware acceleration of design automation tasks
This paper investigates the possibility of using Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (Fr’GAS) as
reconfigurable co-processors for workstations to produce moderate speedups for most tasks
in the design process, resulting in a worthwhile overall design process speedup at low cost
and allowing algorithm upgrades with no hardware modification. The use of FPGAS as hardware
accelerators is reviewed and then achievable speedups are predicted for logic simulation
and VLSI design rule checking tasks for various FPGA co-processor arrangements
CPC: programming with a massive number of lightweight threads
Threads are a convenient and modular abstraction for writing concurrent
programs, but often fairly expensive. The standard alternative to threads,
event-loop programming, allows much lighter units of concurrency, but leads to
code that is difficult to write and even harder to understand. Continuation
Passing C (CPC) is a translator that converts a program written in threaded
style into a program written with events and native system threads, at the
programmer's choice. Together with two undergraduate students, we taught
ourselves how to program in CPC by writing Hekate, a massively concurrent
network server designed to efficiently handle tens of thousands of
simultaneously connected peers. In this paper, we describe a number of
programming idioms that we learnt while writing Hekate; while some of these
idioms are specific to CPC, many should be applicable to other programming
systems with sufficiently cheap threads.Comment: To appear in PLACES'1
ScALPEL: A Scalable Adaptive Lightweight Performance Evaluation Library for application performance monitoring
As supercomputers continue to grow in scale and capabilities, it is becoming
increasingly difficult to isolate processor and system level causes of
performance degradation. Over the last several years, a significant number of
performance analysis and monitoring tools have been built/proposed. However,
these tools suffer from several important shortcomings, particularly in
distributed environments. In this paper we present ScALPEL, a Scalable Adaptive
Lightweight Performance Evaluation Library for application performance
monitoring at the functional level. Our approach provides several distinct
advantages. First, ScALPEL is portable across a wide variety of architectures,
and its ability to selectively monitor functions presents low run-time
overhead, enabling its use for large-scale production applications. Second, it
is run-time configurable, enabling both dynamic selection of functions to
profile as well as events of interest on a per function basis. Third, our
approach is transparent in that it requires no source code modifications.
Finally, ScALPEL is implemented as a pluggable unit by reusing existing
performance monitoring frameworks such as Perfmon and PAPI and extending them
to support both sequential and MPI applications.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, 2 table
Parallel software tools at Langley Research Center
This document gives a brief overview of parallel software tools available on the Intel iPSC/860 parallel computer at Langley Research Center. It is intended to provide a source of information that is somewhat more concise than vendor-supplied material on the purpose and use of various tools. Each of the chapters on tools is organized in a similar manner covering an overview of the functionality, access information, how to effectively use the tool, observations about the tool and how it compares to similar software, known problems or shortfalls with the software, and reference documentation. It is primarily intended for users of the iPSC/860 at Langley Research Center and is appropriate for both the experienced and novice user
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