A data parallel java client-server architecture for data field computations over ZZn

Abstract

We describe FieldBroker, a software architecture, dedicated to data parallel computations on fields over ZZn. Fields are a natural extension of the parallel array data structure. From the application point of view, field operations are processed by a field server, leading to a client / server architecture. Requests are translated successively in three languages corresponding to a tower of three virtual machines processing respectively mappings on ZZn, sets of arrays and flat vectors in core memory. The server is itself designed as a master/multithreaded-slaves program. The aim of FieldBroker is to mutually incorporate approaches found in distributed computing, functional programming and the data parallel paradigm. It provides a testbed for experiments with language constructs, evaluation mechanisms, on-the-fly optimizations, load-balancing strategies and data field implementations.