CCLISP™ on the iPSC™ Concurrent Computer

Concurrent Common LISPTM (CCLISP) is the LISP environment for the iPSCm system, the Intel Personal SuperComputer. CCLISP adds message-passing communication and other constructs to the Common LISP environment on each processor node. The iPSC system is configured with Intel 80286 processor nodes, in systems ranging from 8 to 128 nodes. Performance on a per node basis roughly equivalent to AI workstation LISP performance is discussed, as are the implementation details of the CCLISP language constructs. Concurrent Common LISP (CCLISP) is a LISP environment extended for concurrency for the Intel Personal SuperComputer (iPSC) System. This software environment enables the researcher to implement concurrent symbolic programs on the iPSC System in a familiar language: Common LISP. The iPSC System is based on the hyperc&~ interconnect topology pioneered by architects at California Institute of Technology [Seitz, 851. The CCLISP environment is LISP listners at each processing node, communicating with each other via message