Re-Vision: a methodology and tool for parallel computations

This paper describes ReVision , a software engineering methodology and a support ing computer enivornment for parallel computations based on the behavior-oriented formalism. A key feature provided by the environment is support for multiple views of the problem. Two levels of data transformation are supported: metamodeling and modeling. At the metamod-eling level, methods used to construct diierent views of a given problem are speciied. At the modeling level, tools to build diierent models for a given problem are introduced. In the ReVision environment, a set of computerized tools support data transformations from methods to metamodels and models. The ReVision environment thus provides a complexity reduction of the data transformation and user-interfaces between diierent tools for the design and analysis of parallel computations. 1 Background Software engineering methodology and supporting tools play an important role in development of parallel computations. Concurrently, many software engineering methodologies dealing with parallel computations have been developedd1, 2, 3]. Some of them cover multiple phases of the software development life cycle (SDLC). Others focus on one or two speciic SDLC phases. The development of a parallel system always involves multiple models (at least two or three) rather than a single model 4, 5]. It is very rare that a sole model can support the whole software development life cycle of parallel computations. One model may provide an adequate view for a single SDLC phase. However, when more than one SDLC phase is involved , several diierent models are required. Each of them represents a particular abstraction of the system, which is constructed through a certain observation of reality. The nature of an observation is called a view of the system. A combination of diierent observations provided by various models provides multiple views of a given problem. Two basic issues need to be addressed in parallel software engineering methodology when multiple views are introduced to a given problem. The rst issue is to provide suucient observations of a given problem using a minimum number of models. The second issue is to provide the cooperation and data transformation between multiple views (multiple models) of a parallel computation. 2 A Parallel Software Methodology ReVision is a software engineering methodology for parallel computations. One of the main aims of the ReVision project is to provide a generic programming environment in which multiple views of a parallel computation can be easily handled. Model and view are diierent concepts athough they are …