Teaching parallel algorithm with process topologies

ABSTRACT

Parallel algorithms are often introduced to students by describing the geometric topologies formed by communicating processes and often the geographic relationships between them. However, the two most common message passing environments used in teaching, PVM and MPI, each provide only rudimentary support for the specification and execution of process topologies. There is a strong need for better syntactic and semantic support for process topologies in these environments, so that students may concentrate on the algorithms being studied, and not have to wrestle with the environments' infrastructure. This paper first motivates, and then describes the use of additional support within PVM and MPI which addresses this need.

REFERENCES

• 1: José C. Cunha , João Lourenço, An integrated course on parallel and distributed processing, Proceedings of the twenty-ninth SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education, p.217-221, February 26-March 01, 1998, Atlanta, Georgia, United States
• 2: Lan Jin , Lan Yang, A laboratory for teaching parallel computing on parallel structures, Proceedings of the twenty-sixth SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education, p.71-75, March 02-04, 1995, Nashville, Tennessee, United States
• 3: The Message Passing Interface Forum, MPh A Message- Passing Interface Standard, 1994, Available from http : //www. mcs. anl. gov/mpi.
• 4: The Message Passing Interface Forum, MPI-2: Extensions to the Message-Passing Interface, 1997, Available from http : //www. mpi- forum, org.
• 5: Geist A., Bequelin, A., Dongarra, J., Jiang, W., Mancheck, R., and Sunderam, V. PVM 3 User's Guide and Reference Manual, Available from http : //www. netl lb. org/pvm3 /ug3. ps, 1994.
• 6: Al Geist , Adam Beguelin , Jack Dongarra , Weicheng Jiang , Robert Manchek , Vaidy Sunderam, PVM: Parallel virtual machine: a users' guide and tutorial for networked parallel computing, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1995
• 7: Nan C. Schaller , Andrew T. Kitchen, Experiences in teaching parallel computing—five years later, ACM SIGCSE Bulletin, v.27 n.3, p.15-20, Sept. 1995 [doi>10.1145/209849.209852]
• 8: Tosten, R.S., and Tymann, P. Using and Teaching Workstation-Based Parallelism, Workshop presentation at ACM Computer Science Education Technical Symposium'96, Philadelphia, PA.. Feb. 1996, abstract in SIGCSE Bulletin, Vol 28, No. 1, p423.

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  G. Mathematics of Computing
  G.1 NUMERICAL ANALYSIS
      G.1.0 General
          Subjects: Parallel algorithms

Additional Classification:
  D. Software
  D.4 OPERATING SYSTEMS
      D.4.4 Communications Management
          Subjects: Message sending

  F. Theory of Computation
  F.1 COMPUTATION BY ABSTRACT DEVICES
      F.1.2 Modes of Computation
          Subjects: Parallelism and concurrency

  G. Mathematics of Computing
  G.2 DISCRETE MATHEMATICS
  G.4 MATHEMATICAL SOFTWARE
      Subjects: Algorithm design and analysis

  K. Computing Milieux
  K.3 COMPUTERS AND EDUCATION
      K.3.2 Computer and Information Science Education
          Subjects: Curriculum

General Terms:
Algorithms, Design, Human Factors, Management, Measurement, Performance, Theory