Occam objects
Occam objects
The ability to exploit parallel concepts on a large scale has only recently been made possible through the development of VLSI devices, such as the transputer. There is, therefore, a far from complete body of knowledge concerning the exploitation of large-scale parallelism. This investigation represents an attempt to provide a suitable framework in which software designers can manange the complexity inherent in parallel computers and develop large, general purpose software for them. Occam Objects merge the programming abstractions of Object Orientated Programming with the Occam Model of parallel systems. Occam Objects provide a nested design decomposition. Occam Objects provide a key to exploiting parallel machines through the use of autonomous objects, which acquire and release computational and other resources under their own control, thus parallelising and distributing the management of a massively parallel machine. These objects are pitched at the granularity of modules, accepting existing software units whilst encouraging a new approach. A reflective system was applied to the implementation of an experimental system over transputer based hardware, and extensive use was made to a database model of the evolving parallel object system. The support of Occam Objects requires the provision of dynamic Occam processes and channels. The implementation is hardware independent, with the assumption of the presence of the Occam Model. Occam Objects as currently implemented, using an Object manager, may be extended through the layering of Object Manager abstractions to include different hardware environments and full object support, including classes as first class citizens and inheritance. The fusion of processes and objects has made it possible to integrate the programming and implementation model. This has lead to a situation where the problem decomposition, which is rich in structure and reflects the demands of the executing program, can be used to encapsulate the hardware resources of a parallel computer. The reflective control of the execution environment by the object themselves is seen as the best way forward for the control of large parallel systems.
University of Southampton
Thomas, Ian Charles Herbert
1989
Thomas, Ian Charles Herbert
Thomas, Ian Charles Herbert
(1989)
Occam objects.
University of Southampton, Doctoral Thesis.
Record type:
Thesis
(Doctoral)
Abstract
The ability to exploit parallel concepts on a large scale has only recently been made possible through the development of VLSI devices, such as the transputer. There is, therefore, a far from complete body of knowledge concerning the exploitation of large-scale parallelism. This investigation represents an attempt to provide a suitable framework in which software designers can manange the complexity inherent in parallel computers and develop large, general purpose software for them. Occam Objects merge the programming abstractions of Object Orientated Programming with the Occam Model of parallel systems. Occam Objects provide a nested design decomposition. Occam Objects provide a key to exploiting parallel machines through the use of autonomous objects, which acquire and release computational and other resources under their own control, thus parallelising and distributing the management of a massively parallel machine. These objects are pitched at the granularity of modules, accepting existing software units whilst encouraging a new approach. A reflective system was applied to the implementation of an experimental system over transputer based hardware, and extensive use was made to a database model of the evolving parallel object system. The support of Occam Objects requires the provision of dynamic Occam processes and channels. The implementation is hardware independent, with the assumption of the presence of the Occam Model. Occam Objects as currently implemented, using an Object manager, may be extended through the layering of Object Manager abstractions to include different hardware environments and full object support, including classes as first class citizens and inheritance. The fusion of processes and objects has made it possible to integrate the programming and implementation model. This has lead to a situation where the problem decomposition, which is rich in structure and reflects the demands of the executing program, can be used to encapsulate the hardware resources of a parallel computer. The reflective control of the execution environment by the object themselves is seen as the best way forward for the control of large parallel systems.
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Published date: 1989
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 461608
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/461608
PURE UUID: 6fedec6f-717e-409d-bd1d-60a9b27d6082
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Date deposited: 04 Jul 2022 18:50
Last modified: 04 Jul 2022 18:50
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Author:
Ian Charles Herbert Thomas
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