Overview
BRAHMS (like any Modular Execution Framework) is itself only responsible for supporting the execution you request. The actual computation of the System is done by software plug-ins, one plug-in (Process) implementing each Process class (SystemML Class, in BRAHMS). In addition, Data plug-ins form interfaces between Process classes, and Utility plug-ins perform services for either Process or Data (usually, Process) plug-ins. To add computing functionality to BRAHMS, therefore, you will need to develop one or more of these Components. This is the subject of this section of the User Guide.
BRAHMS is a SystemML Execution Client: SystemML defines a global namespace containing specifications for Components (Process, Data or Utility). SystemML Execution Clients are able to execute Systems built from these Components (in fact, built only from Processes - it is Processes themselves that use Datas and Utilities). BRAHMS can execute a given System if a BRAHMS implementation exists for every Component that is needed. In BRAHMS, these implementations are built into BRAHMS Modules (for native Components, these are compiled from source into dynamic link libraries exposing the Component through an Event Handler function). In summary, the Namespace is populated by specifications (e.g. std/source/numeric specifies a Process which is a source of numeric data), and an implementation in BRAHMS is associated with each of these specifications.
Authoring a Component in BRAHMS can be separated into two parts: (i) performing tasks that all Components need to do to play nice with the Supervisor; (ii) performing the actual work you want your Component to do. (i) is a case of performing a list of operations whilst servicing events, and we aim to list in this section comprehensive examples of how to do everything, so you shouldn't have to work very hard to get this done. (ii) is your own business.
Why Develop a Process?
If you want to add something to your model that is just a new parametrization of an existing Process (e.g. a particularly leaky Leaky Integrator Network), you just need to Design that parametrization, rather than develop a new Component. However, if you want to implement a new computation (e.g. a Spiking Neuron Network), you will need to develop a new Process for BRAHMS. That consists of deciding on a specification, and then implementing that specification in accordance with the interfaces defined by BRAHMS.
Before you start
The following information applies to development of a Process in any language. You should review these points before you start developing a Process for BRAHMS, if they sound relevant - it may save you debugging or rewriting effort later.