Occam-2

This book presents a structured introduction to Occam 2, the parallel programming language specifically designed for the novel architecture microprocessor, the Transputer, designed and developed by Inmos Ltd. The advent of the Transputer has allowed a much greater awareness and access to parallel computing. The aim of the book is to give a concise description of this new language. The text assumes that the reader has some knowledge of a programming language, for example, Pascal. The level is suitable for undergraduate and postgraduate students taking a course in parallel programming, although anyone with a knowledge of programming should have no difficulty in following the text. Each Occam concept is illustrated with an Occam program fragment example. The book is organized so that information given in the early chapters is used and reinforced in later chapters. A concious decision was made to omit detailed syntax definitions from the text. The contents of the book grew out of a course which the author gave to undergraduates at the University of Buckingham in the autumn of 1987.
Chapters one to nine contain a description of the basics of Occam 2, introduced in a structured way so that the reader is gradually informed of each feature. Each of these chapters contains a number of exercises. The reader is encouraged to attempt these exercises so that the instruction contained in the text may be reinforced by practice. Chapter ten explains how an occam program may be distributed over a network of transputers, whilst chapter 11 explores how Occam can be used to develop parallel solutions to real problems via the algorithmic, geometric and process farming paradigms. The examples used in Chapter 11 have been adapted by permission of Inmos Ltd. The final chapter, Chapter 12, contains a description of the Inmos Transputer Development System (TDS). Although TDS is part of the Occam ethos and most readers will probably use TDS for the development of Occam programs, this book is primarily concerned with Occam 2, and TDS is not part of the Occam 2 definition. Hence the description of TDS was left to the last.