ASSIST As a Research Framework for High-Performance Grid Programming Environments

ASSIST is a programming environment supporting the development of parallel and distributed high-performance applications on a wide range of target architectures including massively parallel clusters/networks of workstations and Grids. We discuss how ASSIST can act as a valid research vehicle to study, experiment and realize Gridaware programming environments for high-performance applications. Special emphasis is put on the innovative methodologies, strategies and tools for dynamically adaptive applications that represent the necessary step for the success of Grid platforms. We start considering which are the fundamental features of Grid-aware programming environments, based upon structured parallel programming and components technology. Then we show how ASSIST evolved from its very first version, only targeting workstation clusters, to the current version, targeting Grids and solving many critical problems related to expressive power, flexibility, interoperability and efficiency. We also discuss how ASSIST deals with interoperability issues. Eventually we discuss how an ASSIST-based model for supporting dynamically adaptive applications can be derived.