Atom (programming language): Difference between revisions

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{{Infobox programming language

| name = Atom

| logo =

| paradigm = [[functionalFunctional programming|functionalFunctional]], [[Synchronous programming language|synchronous]], [[Reactive programming|reactive]]

| family = [[Haskell]]

| year = 2007

| designer = Thomas Hawkins

| developer =

| released = {{Start date and age|2007}}

| latest_release_version =

| latest release version = 1.0.13

| latest_release_date =

| latest release date = {{Start date and age|2021|11|13}}

| latest_test_version =

| typing = [[staticStatic typing|static]], [[strongStrong and weak typing|strong]], [[type inference|inferred]]

| latest_test_date =

| implementations =

| typing = [[static typing|static]], [[strong typing|strong]], [[type inference|inferred]]

| dialects =

| implementations =

| influenced =

| dialects =

| influenced by = [[Bluespec]], Confluence, =[[Haskell]]

| operating system = [[Cross-platform software|Cross-platform]]

| influenced_by = [[Bluespec, Inc.|Bluespec]], Confluence, [[Haskell (programming language)|Haskell]]

| license = [[BSD licenses|BSD]]3

| operating_system = portable

| website = http://{{URL|hackage.haskell.org/package/atom/}}

| license = [[Bsd license|BSD3]]

| file ext =

| website = http://hackage.haskell.org/package/atom/

| file ext =

}}

'''Atom''' is a [[___domain-specific language]] (DSL) in [[Haskell (programming language)|Haskell]], for designing [[Real-time computing|real-time]] [[Embeddedembedded programming|embeddedsoftware]] software.

== History ==

Originally intended as a [[High-level programming language|high-level]] [[hardware description language]] (HDL), Atom was created in early 2007 and released as [[free and open-source software]] (FOSS) of April of that year.<ref>{{Cite report |url=http://www.haskell.org/pipermail/haskell-cafe/2007-April/024090.html |title=ANN: Atom: Yet another Haskell HDL}}</ref> Inspired by TRS<ref name="hoe1">{{Cite conference |last1=Hoe |first1=James C. |author2=Arvind |author2-link=Arvind (computer scientist) |date=November 2000 |url=http://www.ece.cmu.edu/~jhoe/distribution/2000/iccad00.pdf |title=Synthesis of Operation-Centric Hardware Descriptions |conference=International Conference on Computer Aided Design (ICCAD)}}</ref> and [[Bluespec]], Atom [[Compiler|compiled]] circuit descriptions, that were based on guarded [[Linearizability|atomic operations]], or conditional term [[rewriting]], into [[Verilog]] [[netlist]]s for simulation and [[logic synthesis]]. As a hardware compiler, Atom's main objective is to maximize the number of operations, or rules, that can execute in a given [[Clock signal#Digital circuits|clock cycle]] without violating the semantics of atomic operation. By employing the properties of conflict-free and sequentially composable rules,<ref name="hoe1"/> Atom reduced maximizing execution [[Concurrency (computer science)|concurrency]] to a [[feedback arc set]] optimization of a rule-data dependency graph. This process was similar to [[James Hoe]]'s original algorithm.<ref name="hoe1"/>

When Atom's author switched careers in late 2007, from [[Logic synthesis|logic design]] to [[embedded system]] software engineering, Atom was redesigned from an HDL to a [[___domain-specific language]] targeting hard [[real-time computing]] embedded applications. As a result, Atom's compiler's main objective changed from maximizing rule concurrency to balancing processing load and minimizing [[Worst case execution time|worst case timing latency]]. In September 2008, Atom was presented at the Commercial Users of Functional Programming (CUFP) conference.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://cufp.galois.com/2008/schedule.html |title=Controlling Hybrid Vehicles with Haskell |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080704175648/http://cufp.galois.com/2008/schedule.html |archive-date=2008-07-04 |access-date=2009-12-05}}</ref> In April 2009, in its new form, it was released as FOSS.<ref>[http://www.haskell.org/pipermail/haskell-cafe/2009-April/060602.html ANN: atom-0.0.2]</ref>

== Overview ==

Atom is a concurrent programming language intended for embedded applications. Atom features [[compile time]] task [[Scheduling (computing)|scheduling]] and generates code with [[Determinism|deterministic]] execution time and memory use, simplifying [[worst case execution time]] analysis for applications that need hard realtime performance. Atom's concurrency model is that of guarded [[atomic action]]s, which eliminates the need for, and the [[Lock (computer science)#Disadvantages|problems]] of using, [[Lock (computer science)|mutex locks]].

By removing [[Runtime (program lifecycle phase)|runtime]] task scheduling and mutex locking, two services traditionally served by a [[real-time operating system]] (RTOS), Atom can eliminate the need and overhead of an RTOS in embedded applications.

== Limits ==

To provide guarantees of deterministic execution time and memory consumption, Atom places several restrictions on computing. First, Atom designs are always [[Finite-state machine|finite state]]: all variables are global and declared at compile time and [[Memory management#Automated memory management|dynamic memory allocation]] is disallowed. Second, Atom provides no function or looping constructs. Instead, state variable updates are pure [[combinational logic]] functions of the current state.

== References ==

{{Reflist}}

== External links ==

*{{Official website|hackage.haskell.org/package/atom}}

*{{GitHub|tomahawkins/atom}}

{{Haskell programming}}

[[Category:Declarative programming languages]]

[[Category:Functional languages]]

[[Category:Real-time computing]]

[[Category:Synchronous programming languages]]

[[Category:Statically typed programming languages]]

[[Category:Haskell programming language family]]

[[Category:Free software programmed in Haskell]]

[[Category:Cross-platform free software]]

[[Category:Free and open source compilers]]

[[Category:Programming languages created in 2007]]

[[Category:2007 software]]