Prototyping Fortran-90 Compilers for Massively Parallel Machines

Abstract

Massively parallel architectures, and the languages used to program them, are among both the most difficult and the most rapidly-changing subjects for compilation. This has created a demand for new compiler prototyping technologies that allow novel style of compilation and optimization to be tested in a reasonable amount of time. Using formal specification techniques, we have produced a data-parallel Fortran-90 subset compiler for Thinking Machines' Connection Machine/2 and Connection Machine/5. The prototype produces code from initial Fortran-90 benchmarks demonstrating sustained performance superior to hand-coded Lisp and competitive with Thinking Machines' CM Fortran compiler. This paper presents some new specification techniques necessary to construct competitive, easily retargetable prototype compilers. © 1992, ACM. All rights reserved.