Main Syntax What? Why? How? Examples Timeline INCOMPARABLE
Why do we need this?
  • Parallelism can make algorithms much easier to code
    • Sorting algorithms
  • Parallelism turns networks into supercomputers
    • SETI @ Home
    • United Devices cancer research
  • Current languages have clumsy inter-process communication
    • C/C++ use fork() and pipes under UNIX
  • Good inter-process languages designed for hardware simulation, or too obscure
    • VHDL too limited for compiled microprocessor language
    • CSP largely unknown, only mathematical theory
    • OCCAM has strange rules