ENEE759K/CMSC751: Parallel Algorithmics, Spring 2005
Time and Location
Instructor: Dr. U. Vishkin
- E-mail: vishkin@umd.edu
- Office hours: TTh 3:30-4:30 (by appointment) at AVW 2365.
Grader: Mr. Aydin Balkan
Dry Homework
- Homework 1: Exercises 1-5. Due: Feb 22.
- Homework 2: Exercises 6-8. Due: March 1.
- Homework 3: Exercises 9-14. Due: March 17.
- Homework 4: Exercises 15, 17-24. Due: March 29.
- Homework 5: Exercises 25-29. Due: April 5.
- Homework 6: Exercises 30-35. Due: April 12.
- Homework 7: Exercises 36-38. Due: April 19.
- Homework 8: Exercises 39-45. Due: April 26.
Programming Assignments
Programming Assignments, Including a Tutorial, Manual, Software Tools and Other
Information
Course Goals
- Introduction to the theory of parallel algorithms.
The course will highlight parallel algorithmic thinking for obtaining
good speed-ups with respect to serial algorithms.
- Close examination of one of the most exciting applied research questions
facing computer science and engineering:
Will the upcoming ``Billion-transistor-per-chip'' era provide a way for
building a truly parallel computer system on-chip?
The examination has 3 parts: (i) operational (i.e., how will the system
work?), (ii) functional (i.e, for what application it will be useful?), and
(iii) facilitating science and technology (e.g., algorithms,
deep-submicron VLSI).
Of Special Interest This Year
- 3-4 parallel programming assignments will be given.
- Professor Vic Basili's software engineering team will include this
class in their important DARPA funded study on parallel programming
productivity.
Several other classes have been included in the study (at MIT, UCSB,
UCSD and USC).
Prerequisite Topics
- Basic knowledge and understanding of algorithms and data structures
and computing systems.
Course readings:
- Class notes and research papers will be provided by the instructor.
Please download and print out the first item (104 pages) under
http://www.umiacs.umd.edu/users/vishkin/PUBLICATIONS/papers.html
Reference books:
-
J. JaJa, An Introduction to Parallel Algorithms, Addison Wesley, 1992.
-
D.E. Culler and J.P. Singh, Parallel Computer Architecture, Morgan Kaufmann,
1999. The following quote appears under the title Potential Breakthroughs:
..."breakthrough may come from architecture" ... "that is,
to truly design a machine that can look to the programmer like a PRAM".
- J.L. Hennessy and D.A. Patterson. Computer Architecture a Quantitative
Approach, 3rd Edition. Morgan-Kaufmann, San Francisco, 2002.
Some Core Topics:
- Introduction to Parallel Algorithms:
Performance of Parallel Algorithms, Optimality Notions
- Basic Techniques: Balanced Trees, Pointer Jumping, Divide-and-Conquer,
Partitioning, Pipelining, Accelerated Cascading,
Breaking Symmetry
- Trees and Lists: List Ranking, The Euler Tour Techniques,
Tree Connection, Evaluation of Arithmetic Expressions
- Searching, Merging and Sorting
- Graphs: Connected Components, Transitive Closure, Paths Problems
- Strings: Some string matching algorithms
- Introduction to Parallel Processing:
Principles of available multi-processors and instruction-level
parallel (ILP) systems, and Parallel Models
- Studies on limits of ILP extractable from serial code
- Introduction to published expectations from the upcoming
"Billion-transistor-per-chip" era:
(i) Over 4 orders-of-magnitute of potential improvement over the CPU of the first PC.
(ii) Large on-chip memories will enable high bandwidth and low latency.
(iii) Low overhead hardware/software mechanisms
- Suggestions and possibilities for putting it all together.
Can fine-grained large scale on-chip parallel computing be harnessed
towards faster completion time of a single general-purpose computing
task?
Grading
- 10% - Written homework.
- 20% - Programming projects. You must submit all programming projects
to get a grade.
- 70% - Mid-term exam. Exam date: April 28, in class.
- There will not be a final exam.