On implementing the farm skeleton

Algorithmic skeletons intend to simplify parallel programming by providing a higher level of abstraction compared to the usual message passing. Task and data parallel skeletons can be distinguished. In the present paper, we will consider several approaches to implement one of the most classical task parallel skeletons, namely the farm, and compare them w.r.t. scalability, overhead, potential bottlenecks, and load balancing. We will also investigate several communication modes for the implementation of skeletons. Based on experimental results, the advantages and disadvantages of the different approaches are shown. Moreover, we will show how to terminate the system of processes properly. Keywords: Parallel programming, algorithmic skeletons, farm, MPI. 1