Split-C

Split-C is a parallel extension of the C programming language, designed for distributed memory multiprocessors. Its central idea is a global address space: a program running on one processor can name and reach memory that physically belongs to another, while the language keeps the cost of that access visible rather than hiding it. The project describes this as keeping the small language character of C and offering a simple, predictable cost model, so that programmers can engineer and tune their parallel programs with care. The standard reference is the 1993 paper Parallel programming in Split-C, presented at the ACM and IEEE Supercomputing conference by Arvind Krishnamurthy, David Culler, Andrea Dusseau, Seth Copen Goldstein, Steven Lumetta, Thorsten von Eicken and Katherine Yelick. The language targeted machines of its era such as the Thinking Machines CM-5, Intel Paragon, IBM SP-2 and Meiko CS-2. Development appears to have stood still since 1996, and the language is described as similar to Cilk, another C-based approach to parallel programming.