Abstract
We describe the PCN programming system, focusing on those features designed to improve the productivity of scientists and engineers using parallel supercomputers. These features include a simple notation for the concise specification of concurrent algorithms, the ability to incorporate existing Fortran and C code into parallel applications, facilities for reusing parallel program components, a portable toolkit that allows applications to be developed on a workstation or small parallel computer and run unchanged on supercomputers, and integrated debugging and performance analysis tools. We survey representative scientific applications and identify problem classes for which PCN has proved particularly useful.