Research & Development World

  • R&D World Home
  • Topics
    • Aerospace
    • Automotive
    • Biotech
    • Careers
    • Chemistry
    • Environment
    • Energy
    • Life Science
    • Material Science
    • R&D Management
    • Physics
  • Technology
    • 3D Printing
    • A.I./Robotics
    • Software
    • Battery Technology
    • Controlled Environments
      • Cleanrooms
      • Graphene
      • Lasers
      • Regulations/Standards
      • Sensors
    • Imaging
    • Nanotechnology
    • Scientific Computing
      • Big Data
      • HPC/Supercomputing
      • Informatics
      • Security
    • Semiconductors
  • R&D Market Pulse
  • R&D 100
    • Call for Nominations: The 2025 R&D 100 Awards
    • R&D 100 Awards Event
    • R&D 100 Submissions
    • Winner Archive
    • Explore the 2024 R&D 100 award winners and finalists
  • Resources
    • Research Reports
    • Digital Issues
    • R&D Index
    • Subscribe
    • Video
    • Webinars
  • Global Funding Forecast
  • Top Labs
  • Advertise
  • SUBSCRIBE

Supporting the Fastest, Most Powerful Computing Systems on the Planet

By R&D Editors | May 4, 2015

The ParaPhrase researchers have developed an approach that allows large parallel programs to be constructed out of standard building blocks called patterns. A refactoring tool allows these patterns to be reassembled in optimal ways without changing the functionality of the overall program.‌A world-leading team of academic researchers and industrial experts from across Europe are celebrating the conclusion of a four-year research collaboration tackling the challenges posed by the fastest and most powerful computing systems on the planet. The €4.2M ParaPhrase project brought together academic and industrial experts from across Europe to improve the programmability and performance of modern parallel computing technologies.

“Future computers will consist of thousands or even millions of processors, which poses a real problem to traditional programmers not used to thinking in parallel,” said project leader Professor Kevin Hammond of the University of St. Andrews.

“The sheer complexity of these systems means that powerful tools are needed to develop software that runs stably and efficiently while making the most of the ability to process in parallel. The technologies we have developed in ParaPhrase make it possible now to really exploit the power of these new systems.”

The ParaPhrase researchers have developed an approach that allows large parallel programs to be constructed out of standard building blocks called patterns. A refactoring tool allows these patterns to be reassembled in optimal ways without changing the functionality of the overall program.

Further tools developed on the project allow the program components to be run on the system in ways that make best use of the available processors, maximizing throughput and minimizing run time of large programs. The tools can even adapt the program while it is running to improve performance.

Professor Hammond said, “It was important to us that our research could be directly exploited by industry and other researchers. That’s why we applied ParaPhrase to several important industrial case studies during the project.”

Indeed, the project team has used its extensive industrial expertise to develop Use Case Scenarios in a range of application areas including industrial optimization, scientific simulation and data mining.

The outputs of the project have been impressive. As well as producing over 80 publications in leading international conferences and journals and being demonstrated at over 100 international conferences and other events, the project has produced a range of new software tools and programming standards to support the growing global community in parallel programming.

A Streaming Parallel Skeleton Library for the Erlang programming language has recently been made available and a new release of the FastFlow parallel programming framework has already seen thousands of downloads. Industrial partners are already applying the technology in their own operations and three recently-launched spin-out companies are set to take full commercial advantage of the technologies produced.

Already, the project partners are looking to the future. A number of follow-on projects are underway and more are in the pipeline. “ParaPhrase has been a tremendous success but significant challenges remain. In the future, parallel programs will need to self-adapt to computing architectures we haven’t even thought of yet,” said Professor Hammond.

The project involved nine academic institutions: The University of St Andrews, Robert Gordon University and Queens’ University Belfast in the UK, the National College of Ireland, the University of Stuttgart in Germany, the Universities of Torino and Pisa in Italy, AGH University of Science and Technology in Poland, and Eotvos-Lorand University in Hungary. Experts from industrial partners include Erlang Solutions Ltd in the UK, Mellanox Ltd in Israel, the Software Competence Centre in Austria and ELTESoft in Hungary.

For more information on the project, visit http://www.paraphrase-ict.eu/

Related Articles Read More >

QED-C outlines road map for merging quantum and AI
Quantum computing hardware advance slashes superinductor capacitance >60%, cutting substrate loss
Hold your exaflops! Why comparing AI clusters to supercomputers is bananas
Why IBM predicts quantum advantage within two years
rd newsletter
EXPAND YOUR KNOWLEDGE AND STAY CONNECTED
Get the latest info on technologies, trends, and strategies in Research & Development.
RD 25 Power Index

R&D World Digital Issues

Fall 2024 issue

Browse the most current issue of R&D World and back issues in an easy to use high quality format. Clip, share and download with the leading R&D magazine today.

Research & Development World
  • Subscribe to R&D World Magazine
  • Enews Sign Up
  • Contact Us
  • About Us
  • Drug Discovery & Development
  • Pharmaceutical Processing
  • Global Funding Forecast

Copyright © 2025 WTWH Media LLC. All Rights Reserved. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of WTWH Media
Privacy Policy | Advertising | About Us

Search R&D World

  • R&D World Home
  • Topics
    • Aerospace
    • Automotive
    • Biotech
    • Careers
    • Chemistry
    • Environment
    • Energy
    • Life Science
    • Material Science
    • R&D Management
    • Physics
  • Technology
    • 3D Printing
    • A.I./Robotics
    • Software
    • Battery Technology
    • Controlled Environments
      • Cleanrooms
      • Graphene
      • Lasers
      • Regulations/Standards
      • Sensors
    • Imaging
    • Nanotechnology
    • Scientific Computing
      • Big Data
      • HPC/Supercomputing
      • Informatics
      • Security
    • Semiconductors
  • R&D Market Pulse
  • R&D 100
    • Call for Nominations: The 2025 R&D 100 Awards
    • R&D 100 Awards Event
    • R&D 100 Submissions
    • Winner Archive
    • Explore the 2024 R&D 100 award winners and finalists
  • Resources
    • Research Reports
    • Digital Issues
    • R&D Index
    • Subscribe
    • Video
    • Webinars
  • Global Funding Forecast
  • Top Labs
  • Advertise
  • SUBSCRIBE