RPL: A Domain-Specific Language for Designing and Implementing Parallel C++ Applications

V. Janjic, C. Brown, K. Mackenzie, K. Hammond, M. Danelutto, M. Aldinucci, J. Daniel Garcia

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

20 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Parallelising sequential applications is usually a very hard job, due to many different ways in which an application can be parallelised and a large number of programming models (each with its own advantages and disadvantages) that can be used. In this paper, we describe a method to semi-automatically generate and evaluate different parallelisations of the same application, allowing programmers to find the best parallelisation without significant manual reengineering of the code. We describe a novel, high-level domain-specific language, Refactoring Pattern Language (RPL), that is used to represent the parallel structure of an application and to capture its extra-functional properties (such as service time). We then describe a set of RPL rewrite rules that can be used to generate alternative, but semantically equivalent, parallel structures (parallelisations) of the same application. We also describe the RPL Shell that can be used to evaluate these parallelisations, in terms of the desired extra-functional properties. Finally, we describe a set of C++ refactorings, targeting OpenMP, Intel TBB and FastFlow parallel programming models, that semi-automatically apply the desired parallelisation to the application's source code, therefore giving a parallel version of the code. We demonstrate how the RPL and the refactoring rules can be used to derive efficient parallelisations of two realistic C++ use cases (Image Convolution and Ant Colony Optimisation).

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings - 24th Euromicro International Conference on Parallel, Distributed, and Network-Based Processing, PDP 2016
EditorsYiannis Cotronis, Masoud Daneshtalab, George Angelos Papadopoulos
PublisherIEEE
Pages288-295
Number of pages8
ISBN (Electronic)9781467387767, 9781467387750
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 4 Apr 2016
Event24th Euromicro International Conference on Parallel, Distributed, and Network-Based Processing, PDP 2016 - Heraklion, Crete, Greece
Duration: 17 Feb 201619 Feb 2016

Publication series

Name
ISSN (Electronic)2377-5750

Conference

Conference24th Euromicro International Conference on Parallel, Distributed, and Network-Based Processing, PDP 2016
Country/TerritoryGreece
CityHeraklion, Crete
Period17/02/1619/02/16

Keywords

  • algorithmic skeletons
  • design patterns
  • domain specific language
  • parallelism
  • performance
  • structured parallel programming

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Computer Networks and Communications
  • Hardware and Architecture
  • Software
  • Control and Optimization

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