PEAK - An Intelligent Programming Environment for the Solution of Data Parallel Scientific Applications

The aim of this project is to design and develop PEAK, a multi-layer, multi-target, intelligent programming environment for the efficient solution of numerical problems on a variety of parallel machines. At the highest level, a numerical problem may be formulated in a problem-oriented specification language, using familiar mathematical concepts such as PDEs or ODEs. The system provides a rich set of automatic tools which transform specifications step by step into machine specific Fortran dialects that exploit the inherent parallelism of the given machine. Fortran 90, the new Fortran standard, plays a central role in the environment by serving as a target as well as a source language. We strive to make the program development process as automatic as possible, implementing an expert system approach that is supported by extensive analysis and guided by knowledge about algorithms, machines, program performance and heuristics. On the other hand, since automatic translation will not produce optimal or near-optimal results under all circumstances, the system will be designed to be interactive, allowing the user to furnish relevant strategic information and the system to explain the reasoning behind its transformation decisions