On the performance of pure and impure parallel functional programs

This paper reports on the memory performance of parallel scientific algorithms, written in both pure and impure functional styles. The Id programming language is used, since it allows both pure and impure parallel functional programs to be expressed. The non-strict storage model of Id is introduced. The study focuses on two algorithms: the Dongarra Sorensen Eignensolver and the NAS FT three dimensional heat equation solver, based on FFTs.This study verifies the claim that functional languages allow a composition of programs from modules, exploiting the inter- and intra-module parallelism without the need for rewrinting these modules. But it also shows that memory use of pure functional programs can be excessive, and theat impure functional programs can be as memory-efficient as imperative implementations.