A debate: Retire FORTRAN?: No
DOI: 10.1063/1.2973891
To take full advantage of the ever more complex architectures of the latest supercomputers, users are having to write increasingly intricate programs. Thus, one of the most pressing questions associated with the powerful new concurrent processors is how to make them practical for ordinary users. In our opinion, answering this question means figuring out how to use algorithms, languages and compilers to give users four crucial capabilities and tools, namely
▸ The ability to use old programs, in old languages, as well as new programs, in old or new languages.
▸ New languages that allow one to express, in a well‐structured form, algorithms that are amenable to parallel processing.
▸ Software that is able to exploit effectively all available architectural features, for use in developing and compiling programs in old and new languages.
▸ Packages and library routines that provide standard algorithms that are very amenable to parallel processing.
References
1. R. Kuhn, D. Padua, eds., Tutorial on Parallel Processing, IEEE Computer Society Press, Silver Spring, Maryland (August 1981).
2. C. N. Arnold, ICPP Proc. (1982), page 235.
3. D. J. Kuck, “Supercomputer Prospectives,” Invited Paper for the 4th Jerusalem Conference on Information Technology, IEEE Computer Society Press, Silver Spring, Maryland (May 1984).
4. R. Mendez, SIAM News, March 1984.
5. D. J. Kuck, The Structure of Computers and Computations, vol. 1, Wiley, New York (1978).
6. D. D. Gajski, D. A. Padua, D. J. Kuck, R. H. Kuhn, Computer 15, 58 (1982).https://doi.org/CPTRB4
More about the authors
David J. Kuck, University of Illinois, Urbana–Champaign.
Michael Wolfe, Kuck & Associates, Inc., Champaign, Illinois.
