Ada for multi-microprocessors: some problems and solutions

Abstract

This paper looks at ways of obtaining a distributed version of an Ada program. Since current approaches require a large investment in system software, we propose instead the use of an Adapter, which can be a manual methodology or an automatic translator. The Adapter accepts source of a concurrent Ada program, adds communication and control tasks, and produces source for a single distributed Ada program, which can then be compiled and run on a multi-processor computer. The process of adaption does not alter the contents of any package in the original program, so that the method is directly applicable to systems that make use of library and generic packages. The method has been applied to programs of the client-server mode, and could be adapted for other rendezvous-based languages such as occam.