Newsgroups: comp.parallel,comp.parallel.pvm,uiuc.cs.charm
From: sanjeev@hal.cs.uiuc.edu (Sanjeev Krishnan)
Subject: CHARM 4.3 PARALLEL PROGRAMMING SYSTEM IS RELEASED
Summary: CHARM 4.3 portable parallel programing system is released
Keywords: Charm, portable, parallel programming, object-oriented
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Sun, 11 Sep 1994 16:40:40 GMT
Message-ID: <sanjeev.779301640@hal.cs.uiuc.edu>



We are happy to announce the release of version 4.3 of the Charm
portable parallel programming system. (Versions prior to 3.0 were
called the "Chare Kernel" parallel programming system).


The Charm software can be ftp'd from a.cs.uiuc.edu (128.174.252.1) 
from the directory pub/CHARM/CHARM.4.3.  Many of the papers from our group 
(Parallel Programming Laboratory, University of Illinois) are also available 
in pub/CHARM/papers.  More information regarding the Charm mailing list, 
bug reports, etc. is available at the ftp site. Also check our WWW server 
http://charm.cs.uiuc.edu


The Charm Parallel Programming software is freely available without fee
for education, research, and non-profit purposes.  However, it is *not*
in the public domain. Please read carefully the license agreement at
the ftp site (Charm.license) before copying any files.


The CHARM system includes :
. CHARM       : A parallel object-based extension of C.

. CHARM++     : A C++ based parallel language that supports concurrent 
                objects with inheritance.

. Projections : An expert performance analysis tool

. Dagger      : A notation for easy expression of message driven programs.


This release incorporates bug fixes, a multiprocessor emulator
which runs on a Unix workstation, an enhanced workstation-network version,
a new port to the IBM SP-1, and an improved version of the performance
analysis tool Projections which provides expert performance feedback.



Programs are written in C or C++ with a few extensions for
parallelism.  The main features of the system are:

o Portability : Charm programs run unchanged on various
  shared memory and private memory MIMD machines. The currently
  supported machines include :

        Intel iPSC/860               Intel Paragon               Intel iPSC/2                    
        Thinking Machines CM-5       nCUBE/2                     IBM SP-1
        
        Sequent Symmetry             Encore Multimax                 

        Uniprocessor workstation (Unix) with multiprocessor emulator

        Networked workstations (Unix) : 
        Sun(SunOs), Sun(Solaris), HP, IBM-RS6000
        
o Message driven execution : The system supports message driven
        execution for latency tolerance.  Charm (then called Chare
        Kernel) was one of the first systems to support message driven
        execution on stock multicomputers.

o Dynamic creation of "processes" : Charm allows dynamic creation of
        processes/concurrent objects and provides dynamic load
        balancing.  It also supports prioritized scheduling.

o A sophisticated module system : Charm allows separately compiled
        modules to coexist without name conflicts.  It also makes it
        possible to overlap communication time in one module with
        computation from another which is impossible/difficult in
        traditional SPMD programming.

o Specifically shared variables : Charm supports a disciplined form of
        virtual shared memory by providing abstractions for commonly
        used modes in which information is shared in parallel
        programs.

o Enhanced performance analysis : Based on the object-oriented design
        of Charm and the specificity of its constructs, Projections
        provides graphical performance feedback which is more refined
        than is possible with many contemporary tools. It also 
	automatically analyses the program execution and gives expert
	insight and advice regarding performance problems. 

For further information, contact : 
        Prof. L.V. Kale
        Parallel Programming Laboratory
        Department of Computer Science
        University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
        1304 W. Springfield Ave.
        Urbana, IL 61801
        kale@cs.uiuc.edu
        (217) 244-0094   Fax: (217) 333-3501


