Features

Find out what makes Pronghorn so great.

1. Broad compatibility

• Java profile compact1

• No use of Unsafe, Java 9 module compatibility

2. Simple concurrency model

• Quickly write correct code with actors

• Easily leverage hundreds or more cores

• All pipes are defined as produced from one actor and consumed by one other

3. Separation of design concerns

• Business aware scheduling

  • Actors who do not have work are not scheduled

  • Schedulers can be custom designed or existing solutions applied

• Strong types generated externally

  • Types between actors are externally defined

  • New fields can be added and mapped to new business specific usages

4. Multiple APIs

• Embedded friendly use of wrapping arrays

• Integrate with a wide variety of existing interfaces

• Visitors for reading and writing

• Object proxies for reading and writing

• Zero copy direct access to input and output fields

• Replay of messages until they are released

5. Simple debug and refactoring

• Messages have full provenance and actor chain upon exception

• Test framework supports automated regression test construction for refactor

• Fuzz testing based on message pipes definitions

• Generative contract testing based on behavior definitions for stages

6. Static memory allocations

• No need to release memory and no GC

• Simplify memory usage analysis of the application

• Minimize runtime failures, including out of memory

7. Copy preferred over lock usage

• No stalled cores, block free, wait free, continuous progress

• Efficient power usage

• Leverages new fast memory subsystems

• Enables efficient NUMA usage

8. Sequential memory usage

• Leverages CPU pre-fetch and caches for fastest possible throughput

• Persistence and immediate start up for free with non-volatile memory

• All media is sequential, mechanical sympathy

• Maximum use of hardware bandwidth

9. Software sketches

• Extensive requirements gathering put into a graph

• Involve non-technical people in the early stages

• Refine the design before making any commitments, or beginning iterations

10. Minimized deployed application

• For embedded systems, only the needed applications and interfaces are deployed

• Configuration is done at compile time

• Ultra-small attack surface

• Scales well in docker and cloud deployments

• Targets absolute minimum resources consumed