Deriving parallel programs from specifications using cost information

A major step towards practical use of parallel computers is the integration of cost into transformational or derivational software development methods. The difficulties with doing this come from the wide variety of parallel architectures possible and the effects of memory access and congestion phenomena. This paper presents a model of costs for uniform architectures that is compatible with refinement-based methods of development, that is much simpler than those previously suggested, but which accurately assesses the costs of an implemented computation. Decisions about architecture type and machine size can be made at any stage in the development, even at the end.