Title: SGL: towards a bridging model for heterogeneous hierarchical platforms

Authors: Chong Li; Gaétan Hains

Addresses: Laboratoire d'Algorithmique, Complexité et Logique, Université Paris-Est, 61, Avenue du Général de Gaulle, 94010 Créteil, France; EXQIM S.A.S., 24, rue de Caumartin, 75009 Paris, France. ' Laboratoire d'Algorithmique, Complexité et Logique, Université Paris-Est, 61, Avenue du Général de Gaulle, 94010 Créteil, France; EXQIM S.A.S., 24, rue de Caumartin, 75009 Paris, France.

Abstract: This paper introduces the Scatter-Gather parallel-programming and parallel execution model in the form of a simple imperative Scatter-Gather Language (SGL). Its design is based on past experience with bulk-synchronous parallel (BSP) programming and BSP language design. SGL's novel features are motivated by the last decade's move towards multi-level and heterogeneous parallel architectures involving multi-core processors, graphics accelerators and hierarchical routing networks in the largest multiprocessing systems. The design of SGL is coherent with L. Valiant's multi-BSP while offering a programming interface that is even simpler than the primitives of bulk-synchronous parallel ML (BSML). SGL appears to cover a large subset of all BSP algorithms while avoiding complex message-passing programming. Like all BSP-inspired systems, it supports predictable, portable and scalable performance. Moreover, SGL's explicit data distribution will allow automatic or programmable load-balancing.

Keywords: programming environments; scalable parallel computing; hierarchical architectures; heterogeneous architectures; performance prediction; bridging models; bulk-synchronous parallel; BSP programming; scatter-gather language; high performance computing; load balancing.

DOI: 10.1504/IJHPCN.2012.046371

International Journal of High Performance Computing and Networking, 2012 Vol.7 No.2, pp.139 - 151

Published online: 30 Aug 2014 *

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