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Overview What is this large display?? What is parallel programming? Why do we need parallel programming? Organization of this course Parallel Programming & Visualization Practicum Parallel Programming
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Overview
• What is this large display??• What is parallel programming?• Why do we need parallel programming?• Organization of this course• Parallel Programming & Visualization• Practicum Parallel Programming
ICWall•A large display suitable for:–Education (classroom)–Modern scientific applications thatneed to visualize large data-sets
–3D applications
ICWall: an "off-the-shelf" video wall
•High-end graphics is very expensive•Use tiled display with many projectors•Use standard (inexpensive) components–PCs, graphic and network cards–'PowerPoint' video projectors (~ 1 kg)
•Similar idea as cluster computing, but applied to graphics
Setup•4x2x2 projectors
–1024x768 pixels (4096x1536 total)
•Screen–Back-projection, ~5.5m x 2m
•PC cluster–8 nodes + 1 server –Myrinet network–Dual AMD Athlons–Nvidia GeForce 3
•Problems–Mechanical alignment ofprojectors is difficult
–Projectors have differentcolors, brightness, etc.
Solution–Project test image–Observe image with a camera–Analyse difference between original and observed image–Compensate for differences in software
Making a single image
Parallel Programming
• Sequential programmingSingle thread of control
• Parallel programmingMultiple threads of control
• Why parallel programming?
Parallel Programming
• Sequential programmingSingle thread of control
• Parallel programmingMultiple threads of control
• Why parallel programming?Eases programming? Not really.
Parallel Programming
• Sequential programmingSingle thread of control
• Parallel programmingMultiple threads of control
• Why parallel programming?Eases programming? Not really.Performance? Yes!
Parallel Processing
• Many applications need much faster machines
• Sequential machines are reaching their speed limits
• Use multiple processors to solve large problems fast
• Microprocessors are getting cheaper and cheaper
Grand Challenges
• Applications with high impact on industry or society
• Require extraordinary performance:1 Teraflop = 1.000.000.000.000 operations/sec
• Several Teraflop parallel machines existSee http://www.top500.org
Challenging Applications
• Analyzing video images• Aircraft modeling• Ozone layer modeling• Climate modeling• Ocean circulation• Quantum chemistry• General: computational science• Computer chess• Protein folding
About this Course
Goal: Study how to write programs that run in parallel on a large number of machines.Focus on programming methods, languages, applications
Prerequisites:Some knowledge about sequential languagesLittle knowledge about networking and operating systems
Aspects of Parallel Computing
Algorithms and applications
Programming methods, languages, and environments
Parallel machines and architectures
Course Outline• Introduction in algorithms and applications• Parallel machines and architectures
Overview of parallel machinesCluster computers (Myrinet)
• Programming methods, languages, and environmentsMessage passing (SR, MPI, Java)Higher-level languages: Linda, Orca, HPF
• ApplicationsN-body problems, search algorithms
• Grid computing
Course Information
ExaminationWritten exam based on:- Reader- Handouts- Lectures
More information (slides, recommended books):http://www.cs.vu.nl/~bal/college04.html
Related Courses
Parallel programming practicum
Computer graphics
Scientific visualization (together with Physics)
Practicum Parallel Programming
Separate practicum (6 ECTS)
• Implement ASP + SOR algorithms in C/MPI
• Implement IDA* search algorithm in Java/RMI
• Test and measure the programs on our DAS-2 cluster
More information
Register by email to [email protected] (Rob van Nieuwpoort) now
Starts after MPI lecture (25 October)
See http://www.cs.vu.nl/pp-cursus/ for a complete description
