An intelligent programming environment for multiprocessor systems

The author reports on an expert system, PrIAM, that supports programming for distributed memory massively parallel computers using graphical visualization as a centerpiece. The system provides mechanisms for the concise formal specification of families of numerical algorithms, their visualization as annotated graphs, a powerful set of formal (semantic and syntactic) transformations to tailor the specification to suit distributed memory multiprocessors, and dynamic graphical animation of the behavior of message-passing parallel programs with graphical summaries of their performance. For the most part, PrIAM is a straightforward expert system with three components: the user interface, the database, and the rule base. As much of PrIAM as possible has been pushed into the user interface, yielding a system that is easy to use and maintain. PrIAM currently serves two purposes: as a tutoring system to support lecture courses in parallel programming, and as a part of a programming environment for transputer-based multiprocessor systems