PMDT: A Visual Modeling System For Parallel Applications

In recent years, with the rapid development of computer hardware technology,parallel computing technology, represented by multicore processors andsupercomputers, has developed into an important boost power of scientific researchand production. Parallel computing has deeply spread over the area of the scientificcomputing, massive data-processing,3D graphics processing, etc. On the softwarelevel, traditional serial programming cannot play the huge computing power of theparallel hardware, and has been unable to meet the demand of the people, so parallelprogramming has become a skill which must be mastered by the software engineers.However, the inherent difficulty of parallel programming caused by the codingcomplexity and diversity of the hardware environment restricted the promotion ofparallel applications. In order to simplify the design of parallel programs, experts andscholars, at home and abroad, made a large number of theoretical study and practicalexploration.This article designed and developed a visual parallel programming modelingplatform named PMDT to reduce the parallel program difficulty and to assist softwaredevelopers to analysis, design and develop parallel programs. With the principles andtechniques of visual modeling technology and parallel design model, PMDT providesa unified user interface to support the automatic generation of code framework as todifferent parallel hardware environment, as well as the reverse conversion. Thesystem defines a set of building blocks and modeling rules to describe parallelapplications and algorithms, and can support users to build visual modeling todescribe the parallel application or algorithm. The transcoding engine of PMDT cangenerate code framework from the graphical model according to the specific runtimeenvironment, the system also provides a reverse conversion from the code to thegraphical model, and also, has very strong scalability.Based on Visual Studio2008, PMDT system using DSL technology to completethe implementation, and released as a component module of Visual Studio2008. It’sverified to be correct and effective by an example.