Real-time functional programming systems

Abstract

Real-time processing systems are typically characterised by high processing rates, high reliability, and high input/output rates. Functional programming, derived from the lambda calculus, is a formal basis for computation which facilitates the design of well-structured, highly reliable programs, and also enables a rigorous implementation on parallel hardware to provide high processing rates and I/O bandwidth. The principles of CTDNet2, a new reduction mechanism for real-time applications based on graph reduction, and a combination of eager and lazy evaluation, are presented. CTDNet2 has been designed with real-time processing in mind, and is intended for highly parallel multiprocessor implementation. It is particularly suitable for transputer networks.