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The Extension of Object-Oriented Languages to a Homogeneous, Concurrent Architecture

Citation

Lang, Charles Richard, Jr. (1982) The Extension of Object-Oriented Languages to a Homogeneous, Concurrent Architecture. Dissertation (Ph.D.), California Institute of Technology. doi:10.7907/9EVC-2X08. https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechETD:etd-09142006-085516

Abstract

A homogeneous machine architecture, consisting of a regular interconnection of many identical elements, exploits the economic benefits of VLSI technology. A concurrent programming model is presented that is related to object oriented languages such as Simula and Smalltalk. Techniques are developed which permit the execution of general purpose object oriented programs on a homogeneous machine. Both the hardware architecture and the supporting software algorithms are demonstrated to scale their performance with the size of the system.

The program objects communicate by passing messages. Objects may move about in the system and may have an arbitrary pointer topology. A distributed, on-the-fly garbage collection algorithm is presented which operates by message passing. Simulation of the algorithm demonstrates its ability to collect obsolete objects over the entire machine with acceptable overhead costs. Algorithms for maintaining the locality of object references and for implementing a virtual object capability are also presented.

To insure the absence of hardware bottlenecks, a number of interconnection strategies are discussed and simulated for use in a homogeneous machine. Of those considered, the Boolean N-cube connection is demonstrated to provide the necessary characteristics.

The object oriented machine will provide increased performance as its size is increased. It can execute a general purpose, concurrent, object oriented language where the size of the machine and its interconnection topology are transparent to the programmer.

Item Type:Thesis (Dissertation (Ph.D.))
Subject Keywords:Concurrent Architecture; Hypercube; Parallel Programming
Degree Grantor:California Institute of Technology
Division:Engineering and Applied Science
Major Option:Computer Science
Thesis Availability:Public (worldwide access)
Research Advisor(s):
  • Seitz, Charles L.
Thesis Committee:
  • Bryant, Randy (chair)
  • Fox, Geoffrey C.
  • Johnsson, S. Lennart
  • Kajiya, James Thomas
  • Martin, Alain J.
  • Seitz, Charles L.
Defense Date:24 May 1982
Funders:
Funding AgencyGrant Number
Office of Naval Research (ONR)N00014-79-C-0597
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)3771
Record Number:CaltechETD:etd-09142006-085516
Persistent URL:https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechETD:etd-09142006-085516
DOI:10.7907/9EVC-2X08
Default Usage Policy:No commercial reproduction, distribution, display or performance rights in this work are provided.
ID Code:3534
Collection:CaltechTHESIS
Deposited By: Imported from ETD-db
Deposited On:29 Sep 2006
Last Modified:18 Jun 2020 17:43

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