EXTENT: a portable programming environment for designing and implementing high-performance block recursive algorithms

Presents EXTENT (EXpert system for TENsor product formula Translation) which is a programming environment for the automatic generation of parallel/vector programs from tensor product formulas. A tensor (Kronecker) product based programming methodology is used for designing high-performance programs on various architectures. In this programming methodology, block recursive algorithms such as the fast Fourier transform and Strassen´s matrix multiplication algorithm are expressed as tensor product formulas involving tensor product and other matrix operations. A tensor product formula can be systematically translated into parallel and/or vector code for various parallel architectures. A prototype system which generates programs for the Cray Y-MP, Cray T3D and Intel Paragon has been developed. Performance results for some generated programs are presented