An interesting ACM news item recently is a write-up about a language called ParaSail, which is specifically designed for multi-core optimization. It uses a technique called pico-threading, effectively splitting a program into “thousands of smaller tasks,” which can be executed concurrently on however many processor cores the target system has.
Although Duncan Graham-Rowe’s article on the language likens ParaSail to C# and Java, the syntax only very vaguely resembles those modern programming languages, instead taking after languages like Basic or possibly Lua. The syntax is a little ugly to me personally, but I will definitely be watching this project with interest. The implications for high-performance applications are immense, especially with the rising numbers of cores in today’s processors.
On an unrelated note, I just got back from a family trip to Disneyland, which was quite fun. I’ve been very interested in the special effects in Disney’s rides for several years now, so I might write a bit about that later on…
