Object Oriented Load Distribution in DinnerBell

S. Kono, K. Tatsukaway, T. Aoyagiz, Y. Kohdax, H. Tanaka?

Sony Computer Science Laboratory Inc.
E-mail: [email protected]
3-14-13, Higashi-Gotanda, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo 141, Japan yNEC Corporation
zDepartment of Computer Science and Information Mathematics, The University of Electro-Communications
x FUJITSU LIMITED IIAS-SIS
* Department of Electrical Engineering, The University of Tokyo

Abstract

Here we describe an object-oriented language based on finegrained parallelism. This language, called DinnerBell, is based on single-assignment rule and data driven execution. We use messageJoin as a synchronization mechanism. DinnerBell is implemented using micro-message technique. DinnerBell also uses a new method called object-oriented load distribution. This method works like a macro data flow, however, it works automatically and is much more controllable. The simulation results of this method are also examined.

1 Fine-Grained Parallel Language: Din-

nerBell

DinnerBell [kohda84] is a fine-grained parallel object-oriented programming language. It is designed to achieve high software productivity from its object-oriented feature and high execution performance from its fine-grained parallelism.

Several parallel object-oriented languages have been proposed [Yonezawa87, Yokote87, Ishikawa87]. However, they are based on coarse-grained parallelism and their objects are singlethreaded. This reduce parallelism and controllability of objects. As in Fig1, some of them introduced multiple threads in rather ad hoc way, with message priorities and express messages.

The concept of dataflow is considered to be effective for introducing fine-grained (and high) parallelism within an object. Dataflow machines have been extensively investigated in the past decade. Hardware prototypes have also been operational (e.g., [Shimada87]). Several programming languages for dataflow machines (e.g., [Ashcroft86]) and fine-grained parallel programming languages (e.g., [Ueda85, Steele87] have also been developed.