MENDELS ZONE: A parallel program development system based on formal specifications

Abstract

MENDELS ZONE is a formal specification-based practical parallel program development system on an MIMD machine with 64 processors. It has been applied to the several practical applications: one such application is described in formal specifications totalling 3700 lines, and the corresponding parallel programs generated from these formal specifications totals 6200 lines. MENDELS ZONE has several key aspects. First, an algebraic specification is used for the functional part of parallel programs and a temporal logic specification is used for the synchronization part of the parallel programs. Second, Petri nets and data-flow diagrams are adopted for visualization. Third, MENDELS ZONE has the following unique features from a parallel programming viewpoint. (1) The confluence property of the complete term rewriting system ensures the quality of non-deterministic execution in parallel programs; (2) Serialization in parallel programming is specified using propositional temporal logic; (3) Parallel implementation of theorem provers contributes to practical use.