Accelerating Actor-Based Applications with Parallel Patterns

Parallel programmers mandate high-level parallel programming tools allowing to reduce the effort of the efficient parallelization of their applications. Parallel programming leveraging parallel patterns has recently received renovated attention thanks to their clear functional and parallel semantics. In this work, we propose a synergy between the well-known Actors-based programming model and the pattern-based parallelization methodology. We present our preliminary results in that direction, discussing and assessing the implementation of the Map parallel pattern by using an Actor-based software accelerator abstraction that seamlessly integrates within the C++ Actor Framework (CAF). The results obtained on the Intel Xeon Phi KNL platform demonstrate good performance figures achieved with negligible programming efforts.