CALL FOR PAPERS

SICSA MULTICORE CHALLENGE
Programming Language Support for Multicore Parallelism
Special Issue of Concurrency and Computation: Practice and Experience
http://www.macs.hw.ac.uk/sicsawiki/index.php/SpecialIssueCPE


The SICSA Multicore Challenge, which aims to assess current
programming language support for multicore parallelism, has been
running since 2010. The aim of the challenge is to compare and
contrast different implementation techniques for harnessing multicore
parallelism, across a range of programming languages and systems. So
far, participants have contributed programming solutions to two
specific parallel problems. Challenge Phase I concerned a text-file
concordance generator. Phase II concerned a planetary n-body
simulator. Precise specifications of both problems are given at:
http://www.macs.hw.ac.uk/sicsawiki/index.php/MultiCoreChallenge

We now invite submissions to a special issue of the journal
Concurrency and Computation: Practice and Experience.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1532-0634

Submissions should describe a particular approach, or a set of related
approaches, to solving one or both of the parallel challenges. Of
particular interest are: (i) the program performance, (ii) performance
portability, and (iii) the programmer productivity, of the methods and
implementation techniques used to address each problem. A recommended
paper structure is provided at
http://www.macs.hw.ac.uk/sicsawiki/index.php/PaperTemplate

Although we anticipate that existing SICSA Multicore Challenge
participants will submit papers, we also welcome papers from people,
who have not been able to attend the workshops, or engage fully in the
challenge activities to date. In particular, we encourage new
contributors to upload information on their implementations onto the
Wiki. All papers will be judged impartially on merit and relevance by
a reviewing panel assembled for this special issue. Prior levels of
participation will not impact the refereeing process.

Instructions for SICSA Multicore Challenge 2012 special issue

* The editors of the special issue are
Hans-Wolfgang Loidl (H.W.Loidl@hw.ac.uk) and
Jeremy Singer (jeremy.singer@glasgow.ac.uk).
* Papers will be refereed by members of the reviewing panel shown below.
* Please submit your full paper to Manuscript Central
http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/cpe
as "SICSA Multicore Challenge 2012 special issue".
* The submitted papers must be original work describing
implementations of one or both SICSA Multicore Challenge
problems. The work must not be published anywhere else nor
under any simultaneous consideration in any other venue.
* There is a 30 page max length limit (12 point single
space, inclusive of figures and tables).
* The notification will include reviewer comments from
3 expert referees in the area.
* Wiley has Latex templates at
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/%28ISSN%291532-0634/homepage/la_tex_class_file.htm
and we anticipate that most authors will make use of
these. Either Latex or Word will be accepted.
* Important dates:
. Submission of full papers: February 6, 2012
. Notification of acceptance: March 30, 2012.
. Revised Camera-ready Papers: May 11, 2012.
. Final Decisions: June 8, 2012.
. Papers are expected to appear within 4 months of final acceptance.


REVIEWING PANEL

Hans-Wolfgang Loidl (co-chair, Heriot-Watt University)
Jeremy Singer (co-chair, University of Glasgow)
Greg Michaelson (Heriot-Watt University)
Paul Cockshott (University of Glasgow)
Kevin Hammond (St Andrews University)
Tim Harris (Microsoft Research)
Murray Cole (University of Edinburgh)