A microkernel design for component-based parallel numerical software systems

What is the minimal software infrastructure and what type of conventions are needed to simplify development of sophisticated parallel numerical application codes using a variety of software components that are not necessarily available as source code? We propose an opaque object-based model where the objects are dynamically loadable from the file system of network. The microkernel required to manage such a system needs to include, at most a few basic services, namely, a mechanism for loading objects at run time via dynamic link libraries, and consistent schemes for error handling and memory management; and selected methods that all objects share, to deal with object life (destruction, reference counting, relationships), and object observation (viewing, profiling, tracing). We are experimenting with these ideas in the context of extensible numerical software within the ALICE (Advanced Large-scale Integrated Computational Environment) project, where se are building the microkernel to manage the interoperability among various tools for large-scale scientific simulations. This paper presents some preliminary observations and conclusions from our work with microkernel design.