Architecture framework for modeling the deployment of parallel applications on parallel computing platforms

To increase the computing performance the current trend is towards applying parallel computing in which the tasks are run in parallel on multiple nodes. Current approaches in parallel computing tend to focus on mapping parallel algorithms to parallel computing platforms. However, the complexity and variety of current software systems goes beyond the notion of algorithms only, and needs to consider the design from a broader application perspective that requires explicit design abstractions. For this purpose, we propose an architecture framework for modeling parallel applications to support the communication among the stakeholders, to reason about the design decisions and to support the analysis of the architectural design. The architecture framework consists of six coherent set of viewpoints which addresses different concerns in the design of parallel applications. The architecture framework is based on a metamodel that is derived after a thorough domain analysis on parallel computing. To support the architecture design process we have also developed the corresponding tool set that implements the architecture framework. The application of the architecture framework is illustrated for an order management application.