Supercomputers and Ada

Supercomputers and Ada

[agate!stanford.edu!ptolemy-ri!dano]

Ada On Super-Computers Workshop: Programming High Performance 
Computers.

TRI-Ada T91  San Jose, CA  October 21, 1991

Call For Contribution & Participation

High Performance Computing solutions are becoming more wide 
spread  because of inexpensive microprocessor technology and inno-
vative computer architectures. These architectures rely extensively 
on parallelism in many formsQpipelining, vector processingQand in 
many degreesQ coarse to medium to fine grain.  Ada with its numeric 
processing, tasking and generic abstraction features has the 
potential to address the growing problem of programming super-
computers effectively.

The aim of this workshop, which is held in conjunction with ACM SIG 
Ada sponsored TRI-Ada T91, is to bring together interested super-
computer users, Ada technologistsQcompiler vendors, computer 
manufacturersQ and Ada 9X Mapping/Revision participants  to ad-
dress the following issues, each in a 1 and 1/2 hour  session of 
panel and audience debate and discussion:

1) Users Needs

Currently, FORTRAN is the lingua franca of super-computer users.  
What steps are needed to make Ada the language of choice for users 
of super-computers?

2) Compiler Technology

Super-computer architectures require sophisticated compilers to 
achieve effective performance. Ada , for performance reasons, also 
requires a sophisticated compiler.  How can both be accommodated?

3) Language Issues

In some instances, the Ada Language Reference Manual restricts  the 
use of parallel processing.  Also, scientific users have specialized 
needs in handling  floating pointing  representation, storage and op-
eration.  What are the critical issues and what steps can be made to 
accommodate such issues now and in the Ada 9X revision process?  
 
4) Wrap Up

The results of the workshop Qlists of issues, proposed solutions and 
recommendationsQ will be summarized and published in Ada Letters.
   
If you are doing work related to any of these areas and would like to 
bring your expertise and point of view to bear on the above ques-tions 
as a panelist, then we invite you to submit a short descriptionQ3 
pagesQof what your interests are and in which session you are in-
terested in participating.  Short position statements from invited 
panelists will start each session and then the floor will be opened 
by a moderator for debate and discussion with the panel and the 
audi-ence.
The dead-line for submitting a position brief as a speaker/panelist 
is October 15 1991.
The audience attendance is limited to about 75 persons so please 
contact one of us as soon as possible if you are interested in attend-
ing.

Dan Ostermiller
NASA Ames Research Center
MS 244-18
Moffett Field CA.
94070
415 604-4814
415-604-6997 fax
dano@ptolemy.arc.nasa.gov

Philippe Collard
TeleSoft
5959 Cornerstone Court
San Diego, CA 92121
619 457 2700
619 597 0574 fax
philippe@telesoft.com

Andre Goforth
Info. Sciences Division, FI
NASA ARC, ms 244-18
Moffett Field, CA 94035
415 604 4809
415 604 6997 fax
andy@ptolemy.arc.nasa.gov 

Richard Sincovec
615-574-3127
sincovec@msr.epm.ornl.gov