The magnitude of the algorithmic knowledge base that has been developed for the PRAM (Parallel Random-Access Model, or ``Machine'') algorithmic model makes it a serious alternative to the serial algorithmic theory. The following concrete open problem is addressed in this research. Can a breakthrough high-end parallel computer be built, through truly designing a machine that can look to a programmer like a PRAM? Eluding a solution for several decades, the problem of building a general-purpose parallel computer that is significantly faster than its serial counterpart has been a major open problem for computer science since the inception of the field. This proposal will provide the research backbone in the research and development of a holistic computation framework, called Explicit Multi-Threading (XMT) that seeks to resolve this long-standing open problem. The proposal also has an educational outreach component. Technical activities include the following: architecture studies including memory systems and interconnection networks, improving XMT compiler analysis, enhancing XMT optimizations, automatic extraction of parallelism for XMT, prototyping performance of several APIs, as well as some modern software architectures, on XMT. The education outreach component will involve the development of a computer organization course on XMT.
