SISAL

Streams and Iteration in a Single Assignment Language.

A general-purpose single assignment functional programminglanguage with strict semantics, automatic parallelisation

and efficient arrays. Outputs a dataflow graph in IF1

(Intermediary Form 1). Derived from VAL, adds recursion

and finite streams. Pascal-like syntax. Designed to be a

common high-level language for numerical programs on a variety

of multiprocessors.

Implementations exist for Cray X-MP, Cray Y-MP, Cray-2,

Sequent, Encore Alliant, dataflow architectures,

transputers and systolic arrays.

Defined in 1983 by James McGraw et al, ManchesterUniversity, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory,

Colorado State University and DEC. Revised in 1985.

First compiled implementation in 1986. Performance superior

to C and competitive with Fortran, combined with efficient

and automatic parallelisation.

Not to be confused with SASL.

E-mail: John Feo [email protected], Rod Oldehoeft

[email protected].

David C. Cann has written an Optimising SISAL Compiler (OSC) which attempts to make

efficient use of parallel processors such as Crays.

Latest version: 12.0, SISAL 1.2.

["A Report on the SISAL Language Project", J.T. Feo et al, J

Parallel and Distrib Computing 10(4):349-366 (Dec 1990)].

(2000-07-07)