Mul-T: A High-Performance Parallel Lisp

Abstract

Mul-T is a parallel Lisp system, based on Multilisp's future construct, that has been developed to run on an Encore Multimax multiprocessor. Mul-T is an extended version of the Yale T system and uses the T system's ORBIT compiler to achieve “production quality” performance on stock hardware — about 100 times faster than Multilisp. Mul-T shows that futures can be implemented cheaply enough to be useful in a production-quality system. Mul-T is fully operational, including a user interface that supports managing groups of parallel tasks.