Basic HTML version of Foils prepared 23 August 1998

Foil 49 Pleasingly Parallel Algorithms

From CPS615-Introduction-Course,Driving Technology and HPCC Current Status and Futures CPS615 Basic Simulation Track for Computational Science -- Fall Semester 98. by Geoffrey C. Fox, (Some Culler, Koelbel material)


Many applications are what is called (essentially) embarrassingly or more kindly pleasingly parallel
These are made up of independent concurrent components
  • Each client independently accesses a Web Server
  • Each roll of a Monte Carlo dice (random number) is an independent sample
  • Each stock can be priced separately in a financial portfolio
  • Each transaction in a database is almost independent (a given account is locked but usually different accounts are accessed at same time)
  • Different parts of Seismic data can be processed independently
In contrast points in a finite difference grid (from a differential equation) canNOT be updated independently
Such problems are often formally data-parallel but can be handled much more easily -- like functional parallelism



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