Multicore, manycore, and cloud computing: Is a new programming language paradigm required?

Abstract

Most of the mainstream programming languages in use today originated in the 70s and 80s. Even the scripting languages in growing use today tend to be based on paradigms established twenty years ago. Does the arrival of multicore, manycore, and cloud computing mean that we need to establish a new set of programming languages with new paradigms, or should we focus on adding more parallel programming features to our existing programming languages? Consistent with the SPLASH theme of the Internet as the world-wide Virtual Machine, and the Onward! theme focused on the future of Software Language Design, this panel will discuss the role that programming languages should play in this new distributed, highly parallel computing milieu. Do we need new languages with new programming paradigms, and if so, what should these new languages look like?