Efficient compilation of concurrent call/return communication in actor-based programming languages
W. Kim, Gul Agha, R. Panwar · 2002
Concurrent call/return communication (CCRC) allows programmers to conveniently express a communication pattern where a sender invokes a remote operation and uses the result to continue its computation. The blocking semantics requires context switching for efficient utilization of computation resource. We present a compilation technique which allows programmers to use CCRC with the cost of non-blocking asynchronous communication plus minimum context switch cost. The technique transforms CCRCs into non-blocking asynchronous sends and encapsulates continuations into separate objects. A data flow analysis is used to guarantee that only necessary context is cached in continuation objects.