R. H. Perrott
D. K. Stevenson
Abstract
The ILLIAC IV is a unique machine which has led the research and development of lockstep parallel processing. The machine has been operational since 1973, in experimental mode, and since 1975 in full production mode. There has been on the order of a hundred users of the machine and these users and their codes have been well documented. Four languages are available on the machine ranging from high level to machine code. A survey has been conducted of the users in order to determine how the ILLIAC IV has been employed and how the high level programming languages have facilitated the use of this machine. This paper presents the results of that survey.The survey attempts to confirm or eliminate some of the folklore that has grown up around the ILLIAC IV facility. It can be helpful in the design of the next generation of supercomputers and their languages and in the improvement of the present generation of languages. The responses to the survey indicate: 1) that the ILLIAC IV has been accepted by the scientific community; 2) that a wide range of different application areas have used the machine; 3) that users have had to construct their programs so as to minimise the effects of the serious bottleneck created by the movement of data between the main and backing stores; and 4) that the high level programming languages available have insufficient or inefficient structures which at times require the use of machine code.
- Bouknight, W. J., Denenberg, S. A., McIntyre, D. E., Randall, J. M., Sameh, A. H., and Slotnick, D. L. "The ILLIAC IV System." Proc. IEEE, 60, 4 (April 1972) 369--388.Google Scholar
Cross Ref
- Lawrie, D. H., Layman, T., Baer, D., and Randall, J. M. "Glypnir - A Programming Language for ILLIAC IV." Comm. ACM 17, 3 (March 1975), 157--164. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Millstein, R. E. "Control Structures in ILLIAC IV FORTRAN." Comm. ACM 16, 10 (Oct 1973), 621--627. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Stevens, K. CFD - A FORTRAN-like Language for the ILLIAC IV." Sigplan Notices (March 1975), 72--80. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Lamport, L. "The Parallel Execution of DO Loops." Comm. ACM 17, 2 (Feb 1972), 83--89. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Perrott, R. H. "A language for Array and Vector Processors." ACM TOPLAS 1, 2 (Oct 1979), 177--195. Google ScholarDigital Library
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