by Eugene Loh
The DARPA High Productivity Computing Systems (HPCS) program sought a tenfold productivity improvement in trans-petaflop systems for high-performance computing (HPC). This article describes programmability studies undertaken by Sun Microsystems in its HPCS participation. These studies were distinct from Sun’s ongoing development of a new HPC programming language (Fortress) and the company’s broader HPCS productivity studies, though there was certainly overlap with both activities.

These programmability studies began with a focus on programming languages, but the focus quickly shifted to other topics. Existing languages—notably Fortran, which is arguably still the primary language in HPC—proved remarkably adequate. Programming challenges stem mostly from other factors.

What if programming did not mean having to learn a language someone else devised and then wrestling with the limitations of that language, its compilers, and computers to implement your task? What if it meant, in a sense, the opposite? You could write your program in whatever way was most expressive for you, without regard for language rules imposed by someone else. Then it would be someone else’s job to define the programming language that would make sense of what you wrote, write the compilers to digest the program, and build the computers that would efficiently run the task you specified.

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