Abstract
The ALPHA language results from research on automatic synthesis of systolic algorithms. It is based on the recurrence equation formalism introduced by Karp, Miller and Winograd in 1967. The basic objects of ALPHA are variables indexed on integral points of a convex set. It is a functional/equational language, whose definition is particularly well-suited to express regular algorithms, as well as transformations of these algorithms from their initial mathematical specification to an implementation on a synchronous parallel architecture. In particular, ALPHA makes it easy to define, prove and implement basic transformations such as Leiserson and Saxe's retiming, space-time reindexing, localization, and partitioning.
We describe ALPHA, its use for expressing and deriving systolic arrays, and the design environment ALPHA DU CENTAUR for this language.
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This work is funded by the French Coordinated Research ProgramC 3 of the Ministére de la Recherche et de la Technologie, and by the ESPRIT Basic Research Action nr. 3280
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Le Verge, H., Mauras, C. & Quinton, P. The ALPHA language and its use for the design of systolic arrays. J VLSI Sign Process Syst Sign Image Video Technol 3, 173–182 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00925828
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00925828