IMPLEMENTATION OF THE FUNCTIONAL ARCHITECTURE - TIM
Date
1992-05-01
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Abstract
Functional languages have
enjoyed increasing popularity over the last few years, due to their
advantage from the viewpoint of user, verifier, and implementer.
There has likewise been an increase in the demand for special purpose
architectures to efficiently execute them.
The abstract
functional architecture TIM (Three Instruction Machine) is a
developmental culmination in both sides of the dichotomy formed by
notational representation for functional languages and procedural
evaluation for functional architecture. TIM was proposed by
Jon Fairbairn and Stuart Wray at Cambridge University, and is a
compact and efficient frame-based graph reduction processor which
executes SuperCombinators.
This thesis is an attempt to give
TIM a concrete architectural form, with particular emphasis on
the general design issues and methods of attack to be addressed in
designing a functional architecture for practical application.
Improvements in speed, efficiency, and implementability of the
abstract machine are made, via changes to the organisation of memory,
the structure of physical objects, and the contents of the instruction
set.
Finally, I make some arguments as to the accessibility of
the architecture, its merits as a research tool and a representative
of a new sub-class of functional machine.
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Computer Science