The purpose of this document is to provide a technical overview and understanding of the Pericles object-oriented parallel programming model.
The need for Pericles derives mostly from a usability viewpoint. The types of operations found in distributed operations such as scatter and gather, for example, require considerable preparation work in setting parameters for data distribution. Providing flexibility in managing the asynchronous nature of parallel programming is also crucial. These concerns are addressed in Pericles mainly through the addition of new classes for data distribution and futures, for example, and through some supporting middleware.
Pericles also simplifies distributed programming using a very simple idea. The messaging paradigm of other distributed API’s such as MPI transformed into a parametric messaging paradigm in Pericles. In this paradigm, distributed messaging is achieved through argument passing to remote calls. This simplifies distributed messaging, and returns the user to programmatic terra firma. This idea is not new in the literature, and has been very successfully used by the ProActive project at INRIA.
By: Donald P. Pazel
Published in: RC24003 in 2006
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