diff --git a/tests/unit/distributed/remote_add.cpp b/tests/unit/distributed/remote_add.cpp
index 38779ebbb..373d2f049 100644
--- a/tests/unit/distributed/remote_add.cpp
+++ b/tests/unit/distributed/remote_add.cpp
@@ -1,40 +1,45 @@
-// Copyright (c) 2017-2020 Hartmut Kaiser
-// Copyright (c) 2020 Maxwell Reeser
-// Copyright (c) 2020 Bita Hasheminezhad
+// Copyright (c) 2018 Parsa Amini
+// Copyright (c) 2018 Hartmut Kaiser
 //
 // Distributed under the Boost Software License, Version 1.0. (See accompanying
 // file LICENSE_1_0.txt or copy at http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt)
 
+#include <phylanx/execution_tree/primitives/generic_function.hpp>
 #include <phylanx/phylanx.hpp>
+#include <phylanx/plugins/plugin_factory.hpp>
 #include <phylanx/util/random.hpp>
 
 #include <hpx/hpx_init.hpp>
 #include <hpx/include/iostreams.hpp>
-#include <hpx/include/lcos.hpp>
-#include <hpx/include/util.hpp>
+#include <hpx/include/runtime.hpp>
 #include <hpx/testing.hpp>
 
 #include <cstdint>
 #include <iostream>
 #include <sstream>
 #include <string>
-#include <utility>
 #include <vector>
 
 ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
-char const* const cannon_product_code = R"(block(
-    define(cannon, dim_size,
-        block(
-            define(array1, random_d(list(dim_size, dim_size), find_here(), 2)),
-            define(array2, random_d(list(dim_size, dim_size), find_here(), 2)),
-            cannon_product(array1, array2)
-        )
-    ),
-    cannon
-))";
-
-////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
-int hpx_main(int argc, char* argv[])
+std::string load_data_str = R"(
+    define(load_data, rows, cols, random(list(rows, cols)))
+)";
+
+std::string add_str = R"(
+    define(add, a, b, a + b)
+)";
+
+std::string columnwise_tile_str = R"(
+    define(columnwise_tile, m, n, hsplit(m, n))
+)";
+
+std::string columnwise_merge_str = R"(
+    define(columnwise_merge, tiles, hstack(tiles))
+)";
+
+///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
+phylanx::execution_tree::compiler::function compile_and_run(
+    std::string const& codestr, hpx::id_type const& there)
 {
     phylanx::execution_tree::compiler::function_list snippets;
     phylanx::execution_tree::compiler::environment env =
@@ -60,22 +65,25 @@ void test_remote_add(hpx::id_type const& here, hpx::id_type const& there)
     // tile both matrices
     using namespace phylanx::execution_tree;
 
-    // compile the given code
-    compiler::function_list snippets;
-    auto const& code_cannon_product =
-        compile("cannon", cannon_product_code, snippets);
-    auto cannon = code_cannon_product.run();
+    auto columnwise_tile = compile_and_run(columnwise_tile_str, here);
+    auto m1_tiles =
+        extract_list_value(columnwise_tile(m1, std::int64_t(2))).args();
+    auto m2_tiles =
+        extract_list_value(columnwise_tile(m2, std::int64_t(2))).args();
 
-    hpx::util::high_resolution_timer t;
+    // perform remote addition
+    auto result1 = add_here.eval(m1_tiles[0], m2_tiles[0]);
 
-    std::int64_t dim_size = 12;
-    auto result = cannon(dim_size);
+    auto add_there = compile_and_run(add_str, there);
+    auto result2 = add_there.eval(m1_tiles[1], m2_tiles[1]);
 
-    auto elapsed = t.elapsed();
+    // wait for add operations to finish
+    hpx::wait_all(result1, result2);
 
-    std::cout << "Result: \n"
-              << extract_numeric_value(result) << std::endl
-              << "Calculated in: " << elapsed << " seconds" << std::endl;
+    // merge tiles
+    auto columnwise_merge = compile_and_run(columnwise_merge_str, here);
+    auto result = columnwise_merge(primitive_argument_type{
+        primitive_arguments_type{result1.get(), result2.get()}});
 
     std::cout << "using seed: " << seed << "\n";
     HPX_TEST_EQ(expected, result);
@@ -93,7 +101,6 @@ int hpx_main(int argc, char* argv[])
 
 int main(int argc, char* argv[])
 {
-    std::vector<std::string> cfg = {"hpx.run_hpx_main!=1"};
-
-    return hpx::init(argc, argv, cfg);
+    HPX_TEST_EQ(hpx::init(argc, argv), 0);
+    return hpx::util::report_errors();
 }