BUILDING FORTRAN-LINDA(R)

THE MAIN IMPEDIMENT TO THE USE OF PARALLEL AND DISTRIBUTED COMPUTING IS THE LACK OF PROPER HIGH-LEVEL PARALLEL PROGRAMMING ENVIRONMENT. THE POTENTIAL OF PARALLEL MACHINES WILL NEVER BE TAPPED IF THEY CNANOT BE PROGRAMMED EFFECTIVELY AND EASILY. FORTRAN-LINDA IS A PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE FOR BUILDING DISTRIBUTED AND PARALLEL PROGRAMS. IT COMBINES A STANDARD SCIENTIFIC PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE (FORTRAN)WITH A POWERFUL COORDINATION LANGUAGE (LINDA). THE FORTAN-LINDA PRODUCT WILL CONSIST OF TWO PIECES OF SOFTWARE: A FORTRAN-LINDA PRECOMPILER AND A FORTRAN-LINDA OPTIMIZING LINKER. THESE TWO WORK IN TANDEM WITHEXISTING LINDA RUNTIME LIBRARIES TO SUPPORT PARALLEL PROGRAMMING ON AWIDE RANGE OF PARALLEL COMPUTERS AND DISTRIBUTED COMPUTER NETWORKS. WE PROPOSE TO BEGIN DEVELOPMENT OF FORTRAN-LINDA. PHASE I IS LARGELY DEVOTED TO DESIGN OF FUNCTIONALITY AND INTERFACES AND TO THE CONSTRUCTION OF A PROTOTYPE PRECOMPILER. IF SUCCESSFUL, THIS WILL LEAD TO A FULL IMPLEMENTATION IN PHASE II. ANTICIPATED BENEFITS/POTENTIAL COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS - THIS WORK WILL LEAD TO A PARALLEL PROGRAMMING TOOLAIMED DIRECTLY AT THE LARGE BODY OF SCIENTISTS AND ENGINEERS FOR WHOMFORTRAN IS THE COMPUTATIONAL LANGUAGE OF CHOICE. TO DATE, MOST PARALLEL LANGUAGES HAVE AVOIDED THIS CLASS OF USER, DESPITE THE FACT THAT THEY ARE FACED WITH SOLVING MANY OF THE MOST DIFFICULT AND CRUCIAL COMPUTING PROBLEMS WE KNOW. FORTRAN-LINDA WILL OPEN THE WORLD OF PARALLELCOMPUTING FOR THESE POWER USERS.