mizell%venera.isi.edu@usc.edu (David Mizell) (08/19/89)
Dear Colleagues: I am conducting a survey aimed at collecting information about parallel application programs that are receiving routine, production use on parallel computer systems. I call the collection the "Blue Collar List," to signify that these are the parallel programs that earn their keep (or perhaps that of the multiprocessors on which they are executed) through "daily labor:" regularly performing computations that are in some way integral to the basic purpose of the using organization. This is the first iteration of what I intend to be an annual survey, continued until the number of such applications becomes unmanageably large. Indications are that there are not very many such programs now, but it should be interesting to track the growth of the list for the next few years and watch for significant trends with respect to application domain, architecture, programming language, etc. I am writing to ask that you let me know about any such programs of which you are aware. If you can put me in contact with a person familiar with the development aspects of a production parallel program, I will send him or her (by either e-mail or regular mail) a short questionnaire to fill out and return, that asks for a brief description of the program, the application domain, what multiprocessor it runs on, the implementation language, etc. Some of you may have already seen the questionnaire; I sent it to the marketing directors of all of the U.S. parallel computer manufacturers of which I am aware, asking them to pass copies on to their software developers or their customers for whom it would be appropriate. To be as specific as possible, I'm looking for application programs that are run on a commercially available, programmable parallel computer system for the sake of increasing execution speed via parallelism (as opposed to sequential programs that may just happen to execute on a multiprocessor), and that have passed the experimental/developmental/testing stages and are receiving regular production use. Either explicitly parallel programs or those for which the parallelism was automatically discovered by the compiler may qualify. Strong evidence that a program is receiving production use would be that the program is being used regularly by a group other than the one that developed it, especially if the users don't particularly care that it's a parallel program, but only that it meets their performance (or cost-performance) requirements. If you know of a candidate for the "Blue Collar List," please put me in touch with a knowledgeable person by the end of August, so that I'll have time to get them a questionnaire and possibly ask some follow-up questions. I hope to publish the results of this survey at the "Computers in Aerospace" conference in Monterey in early October, as my contribution to a scheduled panel discussion on the topic of whether parallel computers are "worth the hassle." Thanks in advance for your help. David Mizell USC Information Sciences Institute 4676 Admiralty Way Marina del Rey, CA 90292-6695 mizell@isi.edu