This volume contains the proceedings of the First International Workshop on {\em Constructive Methods for Parallel Programming}, CMPP'98, which took place in Marstrand (Sweden) on June 18, 1998, as a satellite event of MPC'98, the Fourth International Conference on Mathematics of Program Construction.CMPP's emphasis is on the combination of precision and practicality in the construction of parallel programs. Programming parallel computers effectively and correctly is a conceptually challenging task for all but the simplest of applications. Consequently, there is widespread research interest in formal models and practical methodologies which can assist the process.
In order to provide some degree of portability and durability, new approaches must abstract from the detailed characteristics of specific parallel systems, and still remain efficiently implementable by those systems. Most interest in parallel programming is motivated by the quest for improved performance in processing large applications; to gain credibility, constructive methods must be able to demonstrate their competitiveness in that respect. Similarly, they should convincingly enhance the applicability of the underlying technology by simplifying the expression of real programs for real problems.
The programme of CMPP'98 features one invited and eight regular talks. The main issues, addressed in the papers, include:
- formalisms for the specification and cost prediction of parallelism;
- semantical aspects of data distribution and parallelisation;
- high-level parallel constructs (skeletons, patterns), and issues of their efficient composition and implementation;
- the impact of target architectures on the program design and compilation.
cetindag@fmi.uni-passau.de
>
Erika Cetindag, Martin Griebl