Software experience with concurrent C and LISP in a distributed system

摘要

This paper discusses a software system made possible by the current advances in distributed processing, high-speed computer networks, and concurrent language implementation. The system discussed herein consists of several software layers. At the core of the system lies the UNIX™ operating system. This particular operating system provides an extensible set of communication domains which support communication within one UNIX system as well as within several computers inside a Local Area Network. Concurrent C‡, a concurrent programming language, provides the capability for dynamically creating processes within a set of interconnected computers. The user interface to the system consists of a LISP interpreter written in Concurrent C. The resulting system uses a data-driven mechanism such that processes can start executing once their respective input data becomes available. The system has been used for testing tasks for the real-time robotics vision and for the simulation of large VLSI designs.