First steps to compiling Matlab to X10

Abstract

Matlab is a popular dynamic array-based language commonly used by students, scientists and engineers, who appreciate the interactive development style, the rich set of array operators, the extensive builtin library, and the fact that they do not have to declare static types. Even though these users like to program in Matlab, their computations are often very compute-intensive and are potentially very good applications for high-performance languages such as X10. To provide a bridge between Matlab and X10, we are developing MiX10, a source-to-source compiler that translates Matlab to X10. This paper provides an overview of the initial design of the MiX10 compiler, presents a template-based specialization approach to compiling the builtin Matlab operators, and provides translation rules for the key sequential Matlab constructs with a focus on those which are challenging to convert to semantically-equivalent X10. An initial core compiler has been implemented, and preliminary results are provided.