Mentat: An Object-Oriented Macro Data Flow System

This dissertation describes Mentat, a prototype object-oriented macro data flow system designed to address the problem of exploiting idle processor resources in loosely coupled distributed systems. The system is conducive to the development of parallel applications, supports high degrees of parallelism, and does not require a complex distributed control. Mentat achieves this by combining the macro data flow model of computation and the object-oriented programming paradigm. The macro data flow model provides high degrees of parallelism and a decentralized control while the object-oriented paradigm permits the hiding of much of the parallel environment from the programmer. The macro data flow model of computation is similar to the traditional large grain data flow model, but with two differences: (1) some macro actors are persistent and maintain their internal state between firings, and (2) program graph topology is dynamic. Mentat objects implement macro actors. Each object implements an actor for each member function of the object class. Mentat program graphs are constructed at run time.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Computer Science

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2014

Author dc:creator

• Grimshaw, Andrew Swift

Contributors dc:contributor

• Liu, Jane W.S.

• Computer Science

Identifier

(UMI)AAI8823137

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/69595