Streams and Iteration in a Single Assignment Language.
A general-purpose single assignment functional programming language with strict semantics, automatic parallelisation and efficient array s. Outputs a dataflow graph in IF1 (Intermediary Form 1). Derived from VAL , adds recursion and finite stream s. Pascal -like syntax. Designed to be a common high-level language for numerical programs on a variety of multiprocessor s.
Implementations exist for Cray X-MP , Cray Y-MP , Cray-2 , Sequent , Encore Alliant , dataflow architectures, transputer s and systolic array s.
Defined in 1983 by James McGraw et al, Manchester University , Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory , Colorado State University and DEC . Revised in 1985. First compiled implementation in 1986. Performance superior to C and competitive with Fortran , combined with efficient and automatic parallelisation.
Not to be confused with SASL .
E-mail: John Feo feo@llnl.gov , Rod Oldehoeft rro@cs.colostate.edu .
David C. Cann has written an Optimising SISAL Compiler (OSC) which attempts to make efficient use of parallel processors such as Crays .
Latest version: 12.0, SISAL 1.2.
["A Report on the SISAL Language Project", J.T. Feo et al, J Parallel and Distrib Computing 10(4):349-366 (Dec 1990)].
(2000-07-07)