Matching language and hardware for parallel computation in the Linda Machine

Abstract

The Linda Machine is a parallel computer that has been designed to support the Linda parallel programming environment in hardware. Programs in Linda communicate through a logically shared associative memory called tuple space. The goal of the Linda Machine project is to implement Linda's high-level shared-memory abstraction efficiently on a nonshared-memory architecture. The authors describe the machine's special-purpose communication network and its associated protocols, the design of the Linda coprocessor, and the way its interaction with the network supports global access to tuple space. The Linda Machine is in the process of fabrication. The authors discuss the machine's projected performance and compare this to software versions of Linda.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>