Chapel (programming language)

<h2 id="goals">Goals</h2>
<p>Chapel aims to improve the programmability of <a href="/facts/Parallel_computer/nQzcpzQt">parallel computers</a> in general and the Cascade system in particular, by providing a higher level of expression than current programming languages do and by improving the separation between algorithmic expression and <a href="/facts/Data_structure/yNsNvL1I">data structure</a> implementation details.
</p><p>The language designers aspire for Chapel to bridge the gap between current <a href="/facts/High-performance_computing/HT9NwGAN">high-performance computing</a> (HPC) programming practitioners, who they describe as Fortran, C or C++ users writing <a href="/facts/Procedural_code/7r5xz7kx">procedural code</a> using technologies like <a href="/facts/OpenMP/69IpI80o">OpenMP</a> and <a href="/facts/Message_passing_interface/BEuBgDpm">MPI</a> on one side, and newly graduating computer programmers who tend to prefer Java, Python or Matlab with only some of them having experience with C++ or C. Chapel should offer the productivity advances offered by the latter suite of languages while not alienating the users of the first.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:4" href="#fn:4"><sup>4</sup></a>
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<h2 id="features">Features</h2>
<p>Chapel supports a <a href="/facts/Multithreading_(computer_architecture)/ojEKsSNP">multithreaded</a> parallel programming model at a high level by supporting abstractions for <a href="/facts/Data_parallelism/SkYoL91S">data parallelism</a>, <a href="/facts/Task_parallelism/z2znIYK1">task parallelism</a>, and nested parallelism. It enables optimizations for the locality of data and computation in the program via abstractions for data distribution and <a href="/facts/Data-driven_programming/kpkmDAAp">data-driven</a> placement of subcomputations. It allows for <a href="/facts/Code_reuse/DVohfy6U">code reuse</a> and generality through <a href="/facts/Object-oriented/TxNMEcao">object-oriented</a> concepts and <a href="/facts/Generic_programming/kqtqJk7p">generic programming</a> features. For instance, Chapel allows for the declaration of <a href="/facts/Locale_(computer_hardware)/Vpy2ff7A">locales</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:5" href="#fn:5"><sup>5</sup></a>
</p><p>While Chapel borrows concepts from many preceding languages, its parallel concepts are most closely based on ideas from <a href="/facts/High_Performance_Fortran/xS9Bymmx">High Performance Fortran</a> (HPF), <a href="/facts/ZPL_(programming_language)/jFj6fYNF">ZPL</a>, and the <a href="/facts/Cray_MTA-2/7uv4KzAn">Cray MTA</a>'s extensions to <a href="/facts/Fortran/m1KqjcMU">Fortran</a> and <a href="/facts/C_(programming_language)/Ky2No763">C</a>.
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<h2 id="see-also">See also</h2>
<ul>
<li>Free and open-source software portal</li></ul>
<ul><li><a href="/facts/Coarray_Fortran/NKLxPaHN">Coarray Fortran</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/Fortress_(programming_language)/7CYvHCCk">Fortress</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/Unified_Parallel_C/PxDHtBcP">Unified Parallel C</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/X10_(programming_language)/tD3mktjx">X10</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/RaftLib/CPDsfN5h">RaftLib</a></li></ul>
<h2 id="notes">Notes</h2>

<ul><li>Chamberlain, Bradford L. (2011). "Chapel (Cray Inc. HPCS Language)". In Padua, David (ed.). <i>Encyclopedia of Parallel Computing, Volume 4</i>. Springer. <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 9780387097657.</li></ul>
<h2 id="further-reading">Further reading</h2>
<ul><li>Brueckner, Rich (August 6, 2014). <a href="http://insidehpc.com/2014/08/chapel-parallel-programming/">"Why Chapel for Parallel Programming?"</a>. <i>InsideHPC</i>. Retrieved 2015-03-23.</li>
<li>Dun, Nan; Taura, K. (2012). "An Empirical Performance Study of Chapel Programming Language". <i>2012 IEEE 26th International Parallel and Distributed Processing Symposium Workshops & PhD Forum</i>. <a href="/facts/IEEE/UddC4pUW">IEEE</a>. pp. 497–506. <a href="/facts/Doi_(identifier)/muM9Etpq">doi</a>:<a href="https://doi.org/10.1109%2FIPDPSW.2012.64">10.1109/IPDPSW.2012.64</a>. <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 978-1-4673-0974-5. <a href="/facts/S2CID_(identifier)/ldJsHa2Y">S2CID</a> <a href="https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:5904611">5904611</a>.</li>
<li>Padua, David, ed. (2011). <i>Encyclopedia of Parallel Computing</i>. Vol. 4. Springer Science & Business Media. pp. 249–256. <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 9780387097657.</li>
<li>Panagiotopoulou, K.; Loidl, H. W. (2016). <a href="https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7530055/">"Transparently Resilient Task Parallelism for Chapel"</a> <i>Parallel and Distributed Processing Symposium Workshops (IPDPSW), 2016 IEEE International Symposium</i>, Chicago, IL. <a href="/facts/Doi_(identifier)/muM9Etpq">doi</a>:<a href="https://doi.org/10.1109%2FIPDPSW.2016.102">10.1109/IPDPSW.2016.102</a>  <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 978-1-5090-3682-0</li></ul>
<h2 id="external-links">External links</h2>
<ul><li><a href="https://chapel-lang.org/">Official website</a></li>
<li><a href="https://github.com/chapel-lang/chapel">chapel</a> on <a href="/facts/GitHub/n1hNCsc3">GitHub</a></li>
<li><a href="http://99-bottles-of-beer.net/language-chapel-1215.html">99 bottles of beer in Chapel</a></li></ul>

<h2 id="references">References</h2>

<ol>
<li id="fn:1"><p>Lightfoot, David E. (2006). Modular programming languages: 7th Joint Modular Languages Conference. Springer. p. 20. ISBN 978-3-540-40927-4. <a href="978-3-540-40927-4" target="_blank">978-3-540-40927-4</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:2"><p>"Chapel license information". chapel-lang.org. Retrieved November 15, 2015. <a href="http://chapel-lang.org/license.html" target="_blank">http://chapel-lang.org/license.html</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:3"><p>"Chapel Technote: GPU Programming". Hewlett Packard Enterprise. 2023-09-28. Retrieved 2023-11-03. <a href="https://chapel-lang.org/docs/technotes/gpu.html" target="_blank">https://chapel-lang.org/docs/technotes/gpu.html</a> <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:4"><p>Chamberlain, Bradford L. "A Brief Overview of Chapel" (PDF). Cray Inc. Retrieved 22 April 2015. <a href="http://chapel-lang.org/papers/BriefOverviewChapel.pdf" target="_blank">http://chapel-lang.org/papers/BriefOverviewChapel.pdf</a> <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:5"><p>Bongen Gu; Wikuan Yu; Yoonsik Kwak (June 28–30, 2011). "Communication and Computation Overlap through Task Synchronization in Multi-locale Chapel Environment". In James J. Park, Laurence T. Yang and Changhoon Lee (ed.). Future Information Technology, Part I: 6th International Conference. Loutraki, Greece: Springer-Verlag. pp. 285–292. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-22333-4_37. ISBN 978-3-642-22332-7. <a href="978-3-642-22332-7" target="_blank">978-3-642-22332-7</a> <a href="#fnref:5" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
</ol>

Chapel (programming language) open-in-new

Chapel (programming language)