Languages for parallel programming

Abstract

Many different paradigms for parallel programming exist, nearly each of which is employed in dozens of languages. Several researchers have tried to compare these languages and paradigms by examining the expressivity and flexibility of their constructs. Few attempts have been made, however, at practical studies based on actual programming experience with multiple languages. Such a study is the topic of this paper. We will look at five parallel languages, all based on different paradigms. The languages are: SR (based on message passing), Emerald (concurrent objects), Parlog (parallel Horn clause logic), Linda (Tuple Space), and Orca (logically shared data). We have implemented the same parallel programs in each language, using real parallel machines. The paper reports on our experiences in implementing three frequently occurring communication patterns: message passing through a mailbox, one-to-many communication, and access to replicated shared data.