Dryad was a research project at

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for a general purpose runtime for execution of data parallel applications. The research prototypes of the Dryad and DryadLINQ data-parallel processing frameworks are available in source form at

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Overview

Microsoft made several preview releases of this technology available as add-ons to Windows HPC Server 2008 R2. An application written for Dryad is modeled as a

directed acyclic graph In mathematics, particularly graph theory, and computer science, a directed acyclic graph (DAG) is a directed graph with no directed cycles. That is, it consists of vertices and edges (also called ''arcs''), with each edge directed from one ...

(DAG). The DAG defines the

dataflow In computing, dataflow is a broad concept, which has various meanings depending on the application and context. In the context of software architecture, data flow relates to stream processing or reactive programming. Software architecture Dat ...

of the application, and the vertices of the graph defines the operations that are to be performed on the data. The "computational vertices" are written using sequential constructs, devoid of any

concurrency Concurrent means happening at the same time. Concurrency, concurrent, or concurrence may refer to: Law * Concurrence, in jurisprudence, the need to prove both ''actus reus'' and ''mens rea'' * Concurring opinion (also called a "concurrence"), a ...

mutual exclusion In computer science, mutual exclusion is a property of concurrency control, which is instituted for the purpose of preventing race conditions. It is the requirement that one thread of execution never enters a critical section while a concurr ...

semantics. The Dryad runtime parallelizes the dataflow graph by distributing the computational vertices across various execution engines (which can be multiple processor cores on the same computer or different physical computers connected by a network, as in a

cluster may refer to: Science and technology Astronomy * Cluster (spacecraft), constellation of four European Space Agency spacecraft * Cluster II (spacecraft), a European Space Agency mission to study the magnetosphere * Asteroid cluster, a small ...

). Scheduling of the computational vertices on the available hardware is handled by the Dryad runtime, without any explicit intervention by the developer of the application or administrator of the network. The flow of data between one computational vertex to another is implemented by using communication "channels" between the vertices, which in physical implementation is realized by

TCP/IP The Internet protocol suite, commonly known as TCP/IP, is a framework for organizing the communication protocols used in the Internet and similar computer networks according to functional criteria. The foundational protocols in the suite are ...

streams, shared memory or temporary

files File or filing may refer to: Mechanical tools and processes * File (tool), a tool used to remove fine amounts of material from a workpiece. **Filing (metalworking), a material removal process in manufacturing ** Nail file, a tool used to gentl ...

. A stream is used at runtime to transport a finite number of

structured Structuring, also known as smurfing in banking jargon, is the practice of executing financial transactions such as making bank deposits in a specific pattern, calculated to avoid triggering financial institutions to file reports required by law ...

''Items''. Dryad defines a

domain-specific language A domain-specific language (DSL) is a computer language specialized to a particular application domain. This is in contrast to a general-purpose language (GPL), which is broadly applicable across domains. There are a wide variety of DSLs, ranging ...

, which is implemented via a C++ library, that is used to create and model a Dryad execution graph. Computational vertices are written using standard C++ constructs. To make them accessible to the Dryad runtime, they must be encapsulated in a

class Class, Classes, or The Class may refer to: Common uses not otherwise categorized * Class (biology), a taxonomic rank * Class (knowledge representation), a collection of individuals or objects * Class (philosophy), an analytical concept used d ...

that inherits from the GraphNode base class. The graph is defined by adding edges; edges are added by using a composition operator (defined by Dryad) that connects two graphs (or two nodes of a graph) with an edge.

Managed code Managed code is computer program code that requires and will execute only under the management of a Common Language Infrastructure (CLI); Virtual Execution System (VES); virtual machine, e.g. .NET, CoreFX, or .NET Framework; Common Language R ...

wrappers for the Dryad

API An application programming interface (API) is a connection between computers or between computer programs. It is a type of software interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standard that describes how to build ...

can also be written. There exist several high-level language compilers which use Dryad as a runtime; examples include

Scope Scope or scopes may refer to: People with the surname * Jamie Scope (born 1986), English footballer * John T. Scopes (1900–1970), central figure in the Scopes Trial regarding the teaching of evolution Arts, media, and entertainment * CinemaS ...

(Structured Computations Optimized for Parallel Execution) and DryadLINQ. In October 2011, Microsoft discontinued active development on Dryad, shifting focus to the

Apache Hadoop Apache Hadoop () is a collection of open-source software utilities for reliable, scalable, distributed computing. It provides a software framework for distributed storage and processing of big data using the MapReduce programming model. Hadoop wa ...

framework.

References

External links

Dryad: Programming the Data Center

Dryad Home Video of Michael Isard explaining Dryad at Google
{{Parallel computing Concurrent programming libraries Distributed computing architecture Microsoft free software Microsoft Research Software using the Apache license Windows-only free software

Overview

References

Further reading

External links