A prototype functional language implementation for hierarchical-memory architectures

Programming languages are the most important tool at a programmer´s disposal. All other tools correct, visualize, or evaluate the product crafted by this tool. The advent of multiprocessor computer systems has greatly complicated the programmer´s task and increased his need for high-level languages capable of automatically taming these architectures. The authors describe a prototype implementation of Sisal for multiprocessor, hierarchical-memory systems. The implementation includes elicit compiler and runtime control that effectively exploits the different levels of memory and manages interprocess communications (IPC). They give preliminary performance results for this system on the BBN TC2000