NPAC Technical Report SCCS-640
A Domain-Specific Parallel Programming System. I: Design and Application to Ecological Modelling
Elaine Wenderholm, Micah Beck
Submitted September 1 1994
Abstract
The goal of the Em project is to make parallel programming easily
accessible to a broad community of scientists. Previous approaches such as
the use of general parallel programming languages and parallelizing compilers
for sequential languages have fallen short in this respect. The approach is
to design a special purpose programming language which is oriented towards
a specific area of application. The result is a specialized and effective
scientific tool.
Em is a high-level programming system which puts parallelism into the
hands of scientists who are not sophisticated programmers. By restricting and
simplifying the programming interface, Em eases both the conceptual task of
the programmer and the analytical task of the compiler. The model of success
is the financial spreadsheet, a specialized tool which makes programmers out
of relatively naive end-users and makes computer technology broadly accessible
to business. Here the initial prototype is described, motivated by practical
ecological modelling problems.