computer science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to practical disciplines (includin ...

, a bridging model is an abstract model of a computer which provides a

conceptual bridge Conceptual may refer to: Philosophy and Humanities *Concept * Conceptualism *Philosophical analysis (Conceptual analysis) * Theoretical definition (Conceptual definition) * Thinking about Consciousness (Conceptual dualism) * Pragmatism (Conceptua ...

between the physical implementation of the machine and the abstraction available to a

programmer A computer programmer, sometimes referred to as a software developer, a software engineer, a programmer or a coder, is a person who creates computer programs — often for larger computer software. A programmer is someone who writes/creates ...

of that machine; in other words, it is intended to provide a common level of understanding between

hardware Hardware may refer to: Technology Computing and electronics * Electronic hardware, interconnected electronic components which perform analog or logic operations ** Digital electronics, electronics that operate on digital signals *** Computer hard ...

and

software Software is a set of computer programs and associated software documentation, documentation and data (computing), data. This is in contrast to Computer hardware, hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work. ...

engineers. fa:مدل پل زدن A successful bridging model is one which can be efficiently implemented in reality and efficiently targeted by programmers; in particular, it should be possible for a

compiler In computing, a compiler is a computer program that translates computer code written in one programming language (the ''source'' language) into another language (the ''target'' language). The name "compiler" is primarily used for programs that ...

to produce good code from a typical high-level language. The term was introduced by

Leslie Valiant Leslie Gabriel Valiant (born 28 March 1949) is a British American computer scientist and computational theorist. He was born to a chemical engineer father and a translator mother. He is currently the T. Jefferson Coolidge Professor of Compu ...

's 1990 paper ''A Bridging Model for Parallel Computation'', which argued that the strength of the

von Neumann model The von Neumann architecture — also known as the von Neumann model or Princeton architecture — is a computer architecture based on a 1945 description by John von Neumann, and by others, in the ''First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC''. The ...

was largely responsible for the success of computing as a whole.Leslie G. Valiant, A bridging model for parallel computation, Communications of the ACM, Volume 33 Issue 8, Aug. 199

/ref> The paper goes on to develop the

bulk synchronous parallel The bulk synchronous parallel (BSP) abstract computer is a bridging model for designing parallel algorithms. It is similar to the parallel random access machine (PRAM) model, but unlike PRAM, BSP does not take communication and synchronization fo ...

model as an analogous model for parallel computing.

References

Computer architecture Theoretical computer science