Parallaxis: A Flexible Parallel Programming Environment For AI Applications
Thomas Bräunl · Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE · 1989
A parallel language has to match or reflect the hardware underneath to use these resources efficiently. Though every parallel language has to have some kind of parallel machine model, no existing language states this explicitly. The Parallaxis parallel programming environment introduces a different approach. The system comprises the specification of the parallel algorithm and the parallel hardware as well. Parallaxis has been designed for single instruction, multiple data (SIMD) system architectures, consisting of identical processing elements (PEs) with local memory. Data exchange is handled by message passing through a local network. In Parallaxis, the hardware structure is specified in the beginning of each program to establish the environment for coding the parallel algorithm. This is necessary for actually arranging this topology using a reconfigurable system, but it is also profitable for performing a simulation, or just stating the used topology. Parallelizable AI applications that demonstrate Parallaxis' usefulness include computer vision, productions systems, neural networks and robot control.