Broadway: A software architecture for scientific computing

Abstract Scientific programs rely heavily on software libraries. This paper describes the limitations of this reliance and shows how it degrades software quality. We offer a solution that uses a compiler to automatically optimize library implementations and the application programs that use them. Using examples from the PLAPACK parallel linear algebra library, we present our solution, which includes a simple declarative annotation language that describes certain aspects of a library’s implementation. We also show how our approach can yield simpler scientific programs that are easier to understand, modify and maintain