Just to add another
article to the argument, anyone with access to IEEE Computer should take a look
at âThe Problem with Threadsâ in the May 2006 issue (pages 33-42). Here is
someone outside the community (as far as I can tell) developing a framework that
uses âCSP-like concurrencyâ. They even mention the occam word, but have no
references to anything done at CPA! I would say that we are doing what the
industry wants; just no one knows weâre doing it. Getting under an IEEE or
ACM umbrella may not be appealing to all, but getting into the major search
databases is.
The name of the
framework designed is Ptolemy II and can be found at
http://ptolemy.berkeley.edu/ptolemyII/
Kevin
Chalmers
Research
Student
Napier University
Edinburgh
From: owner-java-threads@xxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:owner-java-threads@xxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Tony Gore
Sent: 27 June 2006 09:01
To: Marc L. Smith;
java-threads@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: Intel: timely
article
Intel ought to be
interested - AMD have possibly stolen a march on them with various recent
tie-ups with companies for processor acceleration, some of whom may have some
transputer heritage.
I would consider taking
a totally different approach to how to push CSP, and the most recent exchanges
give the reason.
The next big EC R&D
program will concentrate a lot of money into the area of trust, security,
reliability, dependability. Things such as grid computing will evolve to
computing as a service.
CSP offers a means to
develop software that is side effect free - just what you need for software that
is going to be reliable and secure. Most of the exploits we see daily exploit
side effects e.g. buffer overflows.
FYI - I spent several
weeks writing up some of the background workshops on this area for the EC, and I
believe that there is plenty of fudning in there for the CSP community to put
forward the methodology and do lots of development. Over 4 years, there will be
around â4billion for this area
I may be putting
together a project proposal for this area, so if anyone is interested, please
let me know.
Tony
Gore
email
tony@xxxxxxxxxxxx (alternative if problems
tonygore@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx)
tel
+44-1278-761001 FAX +44-1278-760006 GSM
+44-7768-598570
URL:
www.aspen.uk.com
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4BW. UK
From: owner-java-threads@xxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:owner-java-threads@xxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Marc L. Smith
Sent: 26 June 2006 22:41
To: java-threads@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Intel: timely
article
Hi everyone,
Here is a link to an eWeek article that just came out
last week:
The title is: Tera-scale Computing: Intel's Attack of
the Cores
I encourage everyone to read the article, but to get to
the point:
Nor
will it be successful without getting software developers, many of whom are
just now starting to tackle the move from single-thread applications to
multi-threaded applications, on board, Intel executives
said.
"Every
time you increase the number of threads, you're putting greater burden on the
programmers to write the applications â to actually harness all that available
parallelism," Rattner said.
Have we ever attempted to attract the attention of
Intel? They *must* be aware of CSP! If Intel has spurned WoTUG's advances in the
past, perhaps it's time to court them, again? We should invite an Intel
exec/engineer to give a keynote at CPA, just before or just after another
keynote extolling the benefits and virtues of process-oriented software design
on multicore architectures. :-)
It appears Intel, for its part, is reaching looking for
partners to reach out to. Here's another
excerpt:
But
programming for Tera-scale chips will require a completely different approach
that uses lots of different threads
simultaneously.
That's
a concept only a few programmers are currently familiar with, Pawlowski
said.
It is clear Intel is acutely aware of the problem, and
need to educate the programming masses. Okay, last
excerpt:
So
Intel is getting to work. In some cases, the company is working directly with
large software makers.
Elsewhere, its Software Products
Group is offering tools to assist programmers with multithreading, said James
Reinders, director of marketing and business development for the group's
Developer Products Division, also in Hillsboro.
The
tools, including compilers, performance libraries, tuners and thread checkers,
aim to address such challenges as scalabilityâhow to make an application run
faster on more than one coreâcorrectness, or eliminating bugs, as well as ease
of development.
We should focus our efforts to make contact with Intel's
Software Products Group, and invite Intel to work with Academia as well as
software companies. This is a crucial time, if it's not already too late, to get
the endorsement of one of the world's most influential semiconductor
manufacturers. Isn't this a golden opportunity for FDR, for
example?
I'm at a loss for where to begin, but I'd like to invite
some open discussion regarding what I believe is a time-limited opportunity.
Please share your thoughts.