Automatic mapping of stream-processing functional programs

Abstract

Functional programming languages are well suited to the expression and automatic mapping of parallel computations. The Paradigm compiler is being developed to automatically analyze and snap a class of Sisal programs amenable to static analysis for execution by distributed computer systems. A program description tree is constructed to represent the source program. In this form, the program is transformed into a hierarchy of acyclic interconnections of program modules (code blocks) of two basic types: array generators and stream producers. The program description tree is then used to guide decisions about allocation of processing elements to code blocks, and to construct of code for a target multiprocessor. We discuss the problem of finding an optimal allocation (mapping), and illustrate the methodology using a practical signal processing example.