Release of Portable Occam Compiler (SPOC V1.1)

              Southampton Portable Occam Compiler (SPOC) Version 1.1
              ======================================================


    Authors: Mark Hill, Mark Debbage, Sean Wykes, Denis Nicole.


    The Southampton Portable Occam Compiler (SPOC) supports the Occam 2
programming language. The system generates ANSI-C code, implementing
efficient portable concurrency running on a single target processor.
Compiler features include support for multi-module programs and libraries,
extensive compile- and run- time checks on array subscription, array
ranges and conversions, optimized code generation for atomic code units
and source-level debugging. SPOC allows Occam 2 programs to be developed,
compiled and executed on any platform that supports an ANSI-standard C
compiler. The vast proportion of the language is supported and the system
has been successfully tested with several large applications. Current work
consists of compiler validation using the INMOS Occam test suite and the
inclusion of a configuration level for multi-processor execution.


    SPOC is available free of charge and may be of interest to computer
manufacturers requiring portability between transputer and non-transputer
systems, commercial developers having existing Occam codes for
applications such as simulation, educational institutions wishing to teach
the fundamentals of concurrent programming, the Occam 3 development group
and anybody with an interest in either the Occam language or concurrent
computation.


    The generation of ANSI-C code allows Occam programs to be run on
platforms as diverse as PCs, workstations, message-passing
multi-processors such as the CS2 and shared memory multi-processors such
as the SICS DDM. The generated code is fully ANSI-compliant and should run
under any ANSI-C compiler. No threads support is required from either the
compiler or the operating system.


  Preliminary performance figures illustrates that a reasonable level of
efficiency can be achieved even with processors with relatively high
context switch times. In fact, results from the SuperSparc indicate that
it can exceed the performance of T800 transputers even with highly
concurrent code. There is still considerable scope for intermediate
(source-source) and back-end (code-generation) optimization. The code
generator alse includes support for type-checked interfaces to external C
and Fortran 90 modules, as well as direct inlining of C code.


    The system has been developed with GNU gcc version 2.4.5 running under
SunOs version 4.1.3 on a Sun iPC Sparc-based work-station. The
source-level debugging support requires the GNU debugger and has been
tested with gdb version 4.8. Currently the installation mechanism, the
makefile and compilation scripts assume that the system is hosted by the
Unix operating system. The development of SPOC has been supported by the
European Commission Esprit Project GPMIMD P5404.


  The package is freely distributed via anonymous ftp from the University
of Southampton:


  ftp ftp.ecs.soton.ac.uk: /pub/occam/spoc1.1


  and from the Transputer and Parallel Computing Archives at the University
of Kent:


  ftp unix.hensa.ac.uk: /pub/parallel/software/compilers/occam/spoc


All queries should be directed to:


Dr Denis A Nicole
Department of Electronics and Computer Science
University of Southampton
Southampton SO9 5NH
England


Email: dan@ecs.soton.ac.uk






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