Distributing computations in a parallel processing environment

1. A method for configuring a system comprising a plurality of computation units interconnected by an interconnection network using a computer system, the method comprising:

accepting, by the computer system, a set of instructions corresponding to a portion of a program that performs a computation repeatedly;

identifying subsets of the instructions;

associating the subsets of instructions with different respective ones of the computation units to form a specification for execution of the set of instructions with execution of the set of instructions according to the specification using a pipeline among at least some of the computation units;

loading the specification for execution of the set of instructions into a memory unit accessible to at least one of the computation units; and

distributing the subsets of instructions to the corresponding computation units when the system is booted.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein identifying the subsets of the instructions comprises determining dependencies among subsets of the instructions corresponding to different portions of the computation.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein determining dependencies among subsets of the instructions corresponding to different portions of the computation comprises determining at least one instruction in a first subset that depends on data characterizing an outcome of executing an instruction in a second subset.

4. The method of claim 2 , further comprising associating instructions accessing the same data object with the same subset.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the specification designates the subsets of instructions for execution in respective computation units.

6. The method of claim 4 , wherein the data object comprises an array.

7. The method of claim 4 , wherein the array comprises a sparse array.

8. The method of claim 2 , wherein determining dependencies among subsets of the instructions corresponding to different portions of the computation comprises determining at least one instruction in a first subset that depends on data written by an instruction in a second subset.

9. A computer program product, stored on a computer-readable storage device, for configuring a system comprising a plurality of computation units interconnected by an interconnection network, the computer program comprising instructions for causing a computer system to:

accept a set of instructions corresponding to a portion of a program that performs a computation repeatedly;

identify subsets of the instructions;

associate the subsets of instructions with different respective ones of the computation units to form a specification for execution of the set of instructions with execution of the set of instructions according to the specification using a pipeline among at least some of the computation units;

load the specification for execution of the set of instructions into a memory unit accessible to at least one of the computation units; and

distributing the subsets of instructions to the corresponding computation units when the system is booted.

10. The computer program product of claim 9 , further comprising instructions for causing the computer system to generate the instructions corresponding to the portion of the program from a program specification.

11. The computer program product of claim 9 , wherein identifying the subsets of the instructions comprises determining dependencies among subsets of the instructions corresponding to different portions of the computation.

12. The computer program product of claim 11 , wherein determining dependencies among subsets of the instructions corresponding to different portions of the computation comprises determining at least one instruction in a first subset that depends on data characterizing an outcome of executing an instruction in a second subset.

13. The computer program product of claim 11 , further comprising instructions for causing the computer system to associate instructions accessing the same data object with the same subset.

14. The computer program product of claim 13 , wherein the specification designates the subsets of instructions for execution in respective computation units.

15. The computer program product of claim 13 , wherein the data object comprises an array.

16. The computer program product of claim 15 , wherein the array comprises a sparse array.

17. The computer program product of claim 11 , wherein determining dependencies among subsets of the instructions corresponding to different portions of the computation comprises determining at least one instruction in a first subset that depends on data written by an instruction in a second subset.