Message Driven Programming with S-Net: Methodology and Performance

Abstract

Development and implementation of the coordination language S-NET has been reported previously. In this paper we apply the S-NET design methodology to a computer graphics problem. We demonstrate (i) how a complete separation of concerns can be achieved between algorithm engineering and concurrency engineering and (ii) that the S-NET implementation is quite capable of achieving performance that matches what can be achieved using low-level tools such as MPI. We find this remarkable as under S-NET communication, concurrency and synchronization are completely separated from algorithmic code. We argue that our approach delivers a flexible component technology which liberates application developers from the logistics of task and data management while at the same time making it unnecessary for a distributed computing professional to acquire detailed knowledge of the application area.