A Rigorous Approach to the Decomposition of Data (Structures)

Domain decomposition is a well known technique in parallel computing. It requires the decomposition of a problem domain into sub-domains. This involves also a decomposition of the data structures for the problem into substructures, one for each sub-domain. If the data structures are complex, then the decomposition of the data structures may be a complicated task. This paper will show how the problem of decomposition of data structures is significantly reduced by first describing the decomposition of objects on a high level of abstraction and then working down to code level in a rigorous way. It will be shown that the high level decomposition abstracts from the precise form of the data structures, in which the objects are represented. This allows for the construction of one generic mechanism for decomposition of data structures. 1 Introduction Many simulation packages make use of complex data structures, often involving indirect addressing. When porting such software to parallel comput..