Generation of dataflow graphical object code for the lapse programming language.

Of the many proposals for parallel computer architectures, dataflow systems offer perhaps the greatest potential parallelism at the hardware level. However, it is unreasonable to expect users to exploit this parallelism at such a low level, and it is necessary to provide high level programming facilities which allow the user the abstract freedom of expression he requires, whilst permitting efficient use of the hardware. It has been noticed that single-assignment languages are particularly well-suited to dataflow machines, yet exhibit most of the familiar, useful features of conventional high level languages. This paper considers some aspects of code generation from the single-assignment language Lapse for the Manchester prototype dataflow computer. The syntax of Lapse, which resembles Pascal, is introduced, and code generation templates are presented. Some possible optimisations of flowgraph code are discussed, particularly in the implementation of arrays. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]