An Abstract Machine for Parallel Lazy Evaluation

Clem Baker-Finch. Chapter 17 of Trends in Functional Programming, Intellect Books, 2000, pages 153-161.

Abstract

We describe a simple abstract machine for parallel lazy evaluation. The starting point is Sestoft's abstract machine for sequential lazy evaluation and the development is influenced by an existing operational semantics for parallel lazy evaluation. The general structure of the machine is flexible enough to describe a variety of parallel constructs. We illustrate this claim by considering fully speculative evaluation, `par` and `seq` combinators and limited processing resources.

An eariler version of this article was presented at the First Scottish Functional Programming Workshop in 1999.


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