An overview of parallel and distributed java for heterogeneous systems: Approaches and open issues

Java is gaining considerable recognition as the most suitable language for developing distributed applications in heterogeneous systems due to its portability and machine independence. However, standard Java does not provide easy-to-use features for parallel application development. Therefore, considerable research has been con- ducted and is underway to provide users with tools and programming models to write parallel applications in Java. This paper reviews a number of representative research projects and outlines the primary approaches used in these projects that enable Java o provide high performance parallel and distributed computing in heterogeneous sys- ems. The study shows that most projects fit within one of the following parallel pro- ramming models: (1) message (or object-) passing, (2) distributed shared address (or bject), (3) multi-threaded, and (4) transparent (or towards seamless) parallelization. ithin these categories, the different implementation approaches are discussed. The aper also identifies and discusses a number of related problems and open issues such s benchmarks, porting legacy applications, distributed environment overhead and se- curity.