SOFTWARE ENGINEERING ENVIRONMENT FOR PARALLEL AND DISTRIBUTED SYSTEMS

THE OBJECTIVE IS TO PROVIDE AN EASY-TO-USE SOFTWARE/HARDWARE ENVIRONMENT FOR DEVELOPING, DEBUGGING AND TESTING OF MESSAGE BASED PARALLEL AND DISTRIBUTED SYSTEMS. SUCH HARDWARE EXISTS WIDELY; IT RANGES FROM WORKSTATIONS (VAX, SUN, ETC.) CONNECTED BY A LOCAL AREA NETWORK (LAN) TO SPECIAL ARCHITECTURE (BBN'S BUTTERFLY, ETC.). THE DEVELOPER OF PARALLEL/DISTRIBUTED APPLICATIONS NEEDS TO DEVELOP AND RUN HIS/HER SOFTWARE ON PARALLEL/DISTRIBUTED HARDWARE. IN MILITARY APPLICATIONS, THIS IS NECESSARY PRIOR TO FINAL INSTALLATION ON SPECIALIZED (MILITARIZED) HARDWARE. THE USE OF EXISTING HARDWARE AND OPERATING SYSTEMS IS TOO COMPLEX. WE PROPOSE TO PROVIDE A SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENT, THAT IS BASED ON THE MODEL SYSTEM OFFERED BY CCCC, TO MAKE THIS TASK AS EASY AS CONVENTIONAL PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT. THE USER WOULD DEVELOP SEQUENTIAL PROGRAMS FOR INDIVIDUAL PROCESSES, IN LANGUAGE OF OWN CHOICE, AND INDICATE THE NEEDED PATHS FOR MESSAGE COMMUNICATIONS AMONG PROCESSES. THE PROPOSED DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENT WILL LOAD THE PROGRAMS, SET UP THEIR INTERCOMMUNICATIONS, EXECUTETHEM IN PARALLEL AND PROVIDE TEST DATA.