Ab Initio Technology LLC

Ab Initio Software Corporation

Stephen A Kukolich

Craig W Stanfill

Richard A Shapiro

Joseph Skeffington Wholey, Iii

Andrew Fiske Roberts

Adam Harris Weiss

Joel M Gould

Denise Ting

Iii Joseph Skeffington Wholey

A graph-based program specification includes: a plurality of components, each corresponding to a processing task and including one or more ports for sending or receiving one or more data elements; and one or more links, each connecting an output port of an upstream component of the plurality of components to an input port of a downstream component of the plurality of components. Prepared code is generated representing subsets of the plurality of components, including: identifying a plurality of subset boundaries between components in different subsets based at least in part on characteristics of linked components; forming the subsets based on the identified subset boundaries; and generating prepared code for each formed subset that when used for execution by a runtime system causes processing tasks corresponding to the components in that formed subset to be performed according to information embedded in the prepared code for that formed subset.

Compiling graph-based program specifications

Graph-based computation includes accepting specification information for the graph-based computation, the specification information including a plurality of graph elements, and providing a visual representation of the specification information to a user. A visual representation of one or more groups of the graph elements is determined based on the accepted specification information, including determining a spatial extend of a spatial region for at least a first group of the one or more groups, wherein the spatial extent of the spatial region is determined based at least in part on a spatial extent of each graph element of a subset of graph elements including one or more graph elements in the first group and at least one graph element out of the first group. A visual representation of spatial regions for the one or more groups is presented in conjunction with the visual information of the specification information.

Visual program specification and compilation of graph-based computation

User input is received specifying components of a graph-based program specification. User input is received specifying links, at least some connecting an output port of an upstream component to an input port of a downstream component. The graph-based program specification is processed to identify one or more subsets of the components, including: identifying one or more subset entry points and one or more subset exit points that occur between components in different subsets based at least in part on data processing characteristics of linked components, and forming the subsets based on the identified subset entry points and exit points. A visual representation of the formed subsets is rendered within a user interface. Prepared code is generated for each formed subset that when used for execution by a runtime system causes processing tasks corresponding to the components in each formed subset to be performed.

Specifying components in graph-based programs

A graph-based program specification includes: a plurality of components, each corresponding to a processing task and including one or more ports, including scalar data ports for sending or receiving a single data element and collection data ports for sending or receiving a collection of multiple data elements; and one or more links, each connecting an output port of an upstream component to an input port of a downstream component. Prepared code is generated representing subsets of the plurality of components, including: identifying one or more subset boundaries, including identifying one or more links connecting a collection data port of a component to a scalar data port of a component; forming the subsets based on the identified subset boundaries; and generating prepared code for each formed subset that when used for execution by a runtime system causes processing tasks corresponding to the components in each formed subset to be performed.

A graph-based program specification includes components corresponding to tasks and directed links between ports of the components, including: a first type of link configuration defined by respective output and input ports of linked components, and a second type of link configuration defined by respective output and input ports of linked components. A compiler recognizes different types of link configurations and provides in a target program specification occurrences of a target primitive for executing a function for each occurrence of a data element flowing over a link of the second type. A computing node initiates execution of the target program specification, and determines at runtime, for components associated with the occurrences of the target primitive, an order in which instances of tasks corresponding to the components are to be invoked, and/or a computing node on which instances of tasks corresponding to the components are to be executed.

Executing graph-based program specifications

Computer screen with contour group organization of visual programming icons

A graph-based program specification includes components, at least one having at least one input port for receiving a collection of data elements, or at least one collection type output port for providing a collection of data elements. Executing a program specified by the graph-based program specification at a computing node, includes: receiving data elements of a first collection into a first storage in a first order via a link connected to a collection type output port of a first component and an input port of a second component, and invoking a plurality of instances of a task corresponding to the second component to process data elements of the first collection, including retrieving the data elements from the first storage in a second order, without blocking invocation of any of the instances until after any particular instance completes processing one or more data elements.

Managing invocation of tasks

A graph-based program specification includes components corresponding to tasks and directed links between ports of the components, including: a first type of link configuration between ports of linked components, corresponding to transfer of control or transfer of a single data element, and a second type of link configuration between ports of linked components, corresponding to transfer of multiple data elements. A compiler generates a target program specification including control code representing at least one control graph including graph nodes representing the components, where at least two are connected based on links of the first type. A computing node initiates execution of the target program specification, and manages computing resources for links of the second type, the computing resources including at least one of: (1) a buffer for storing data elements provided by an output port, or (2) a buffer for storing data elements provided to an input port.

A data processing system and method that provides two processes, checkpointing and compute point propagation, and permits a continuous flow of data processing by allowing each process to (1) return to normal operation after checkpointing or (2) respond to receipt of a compute point indicator, independently of the time required by other processes for similar responsive actions. Checkpointing makes use of a command message from a checkpoint processor that sequentially propagates through a process stage from data sources through processes to data sinks, triggering each process to checkpoint its state and then pass on a checkpointing message to connected &ldquo;downstream&rdquo; processes. A compute point indicator marks blocks of records that should be processed as a group within each process. A compute point indicator is triggered and sequentially propagates through a process stage from data sources through processes to data sinks without external control. Compute point indicators also effectively self-synchronize multiple data flows without external control. Use of compute point indicators rather than checkpoints avoids the time delay that saving state imposes, while permitting a continuous flow of data processing, including outputting results.

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Lexington, MA, United States of America

Stephen A Kukolich