Programming an astrophysics application in an object-oriented parallel language

A three-dimensional hydrodynamic code is used to test a newly developed parallel C++ (pC++) language and compiler. The original code is written in FORTRAN77 and is designed to model self-gravitating compressible gas flows. The code is rewritten in pC++ and is tested on a BBN GP1000 and an Alliant FX/2800. Nearly linear speed-up is achieved on both machines. On the Alliant comparison between the pC++ code and the original FORTRAN77 code is conducted. For processor numbers >or=6, the pC++ code outperforms the FORTRAN77 code which is automatically vectorized and parallelized by the Alliant FORTRAN compiler.<
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