Parallel Symbolic Computing with the Shared Dataspace Coordination Model

Shared Prolog is a language for symbolic computing that combines distributed coordination based on a shared dataspace with sequential symbolic computation based on logic programming. Shared Prolog includes a concept of logically shared dataspace, thus introducing in parallel logic programming a coordination model different from the stream-based communication model of Flat Concurrent Prolog and Strand. We demonstrate how Shared Prolog can be used for expressing a number of different parallel symbolic computing schemata such as: pipeline, divide et impera, and distributed problem solving. We also discuss a number of topics in implementing such a programming model