Prerequisites: Passing grade (i.e., B or better) in EEL5764 Computer Architecture, CDA5155, or consent of the professor.
Time and Place: 3rd period (9:35-10:25am) MWF, CSE Building, Room E107.
Course Objective: Students will gain fundamental knowledge and understanding of principles and
practice in parallel computer architecture and computing, emphasizing both hardware and software
challenges and the interactions between them, as well as exposure to research challenges in this
field, through class lectures and discussions, reading assignments, homework exercises, and a major
research project.
Sakai: Click here for e-learning support services
Prerequisites by Topic: All topics covered in EEL5764 Computer Architecture, which include: fundamentals of computer design; instruction-set principles and examples; basic and intermediate concepts in pipelining; instruction-level parallelism and its exploitation; superscalar and VLIW multi-issue constructs; limits on instruction-level parallelism; memory hierarchy concepts and design; and storage and I/O subsystems.
Required Textbooks:
Professor:
Project: A major research project will be assigned in order to explore fundamental issues in parallel computer architectures, systems, and applications. This project will span most of the semester, and it will provide students the opportunity to more deeply explore fundamental issues in PCA. Students will form teams of two or three persons and propose then conduct an experimental research project on a topic in PCA of their choosing (subject to professor approval). Each project will involve elements of both hardware and software in parallel computing, although the balance need not necessarily be 50-50. Facilities and tools to support these projects will be provided as needed and available via special resources in the professor's research laboratory. The culmination of each project will be a clear and concise technical report suitable for potential publication discussing project concepts, development, experiments, results, and analyses. The most important outcome of each project will be the research results that are achieved, analyses rendered, and conclusions drawn with demonstrable insight.
POLICIES
Grading Policy:
Deadline Policy: Much as you will often experience in your career after graduation, all assignments in this course will be given with a strict deadline, and students are required to submit their assignments on or before that deadline. In case of extenuating circumstances, students are advised to contact the professor immediately or as soon as practical. Late assignments and makeup exams will only be permitted in the case of documented medical emergencies.
Attendance Policy: Although attendance will not be taken regularly in class, students are advised to attend all lectures and take good notes. Tardiness for lectures found to be disruptive will NOT be tolerated. Use of cell phones is strictly prohibited.
Conduct Policy: We, the members of the University of Florida community, pledge to hold ourselves and our peers to the highest standards of honesty and integrity. All assignments are to be considered an individual effort unless otherwise specified by the instructor.
Academic Honesty: All work submitted in this course must be your own and produced exclusively for this course. The use of sources (ideas, quotations, paraphrases) must be properly acknowledged and documented. Your professor in this course requires the utmost degree of academic honesty and thus any violations will be treated and handled very seriously. All students admitted to the University of Florida have signed a statement of academic honesty committing themselves to be honest in all academic work and understanding that failure to comply with this commitment will result in disciplinary action. This statement is a reminder to uphold your obligation as a student at the University of Florida and to be completely honest in all assignments and exams in this and all courses. If at any time questions arise regarding what is or is not appropriate, the student should ask the professor for guidance or clarification before proceeding. For a copy of the UF Honor Code and consequences of academic dishonesty, please refer here.
Accommodation for Students with Disabilities: Students requesting classroom accommodation must first register with the Dean of Students Office. The Dean of Students Office will provide documentation to the student who must then provide this documentation to the Instructor when requesting accommodation.
UF Counseling Services: Resources are available on-campus for students having personal problems or lacking clear career and academic goals. The resources include: (1) UF Counseling & Wellness Center, 3190 Radio Rd, 392-1575, psychological and psychiatric services; and (2) Career Resource Center, Reitz Union, 392-1601, career and job search services.
Software Use: All faculty, staff, and students of the University are required and expected to obey the laws and legal agreements governing software use. Failure to do so can lead to monetary damages and/or criminal penalties for the individual violator. Because such violations are also against University policies and rules, disciplinary action will be taken as appropriate. We, the members of the University of Florida community, pledge to uphold ourselves and our peers to the highest standards of honesty and integrity.
| ASSIGNED | DESCRIPTION | MATERIALS |
| 01/09/12 Monday | Introduction to PCA | Chp. 1 in PCA textbook, Section 4.1 in CA textbook, and on-line tutorial @ LLNL |
| 01/20/12 Friday | Parallel Programming with MPI | Chp. 6 in PCA textbook, lecture notes ([PPT], [PDF]), and on-line tutorial @ LLNL |
| 02/03/12 Friday | Parallelization | Lecture notes ([PPT], [PDF]) , Chp. 3 in PCA textbook, Karypis notes on Chp. 3 ([PDF]) |
| 02/06/12 Monday | Parallel Programming with SHMEM | Lecture notes ([PPT], [PDF]), and OpenSHMEM web site |
| 02/08/12 Wednesday | Parallel Programming with UPC | Lecture notes ([PPT], [PDF]), and UPC info site |
| 02/17/12 Friday | Analytical Modeling of Parallel Programs | Chp. 5 in PCA textbook, lecture notes ([PPT], [PDF]) |
| 03/02/12 Friday | Shared-Memory Multiprocessors | Chp. 4 in CA textbook, lecture notes ([PPT], [PDF]) |
| 03/23/12 Friday | Parallel Performance Tools and PPW | Lecture notes ([PPT], [PDF]) |
| 03/26/12 Monday | Parallel Platforms and Scalable Systems | Lecture notes ([PPT], [PDF]), Chp. 2 in PCA textbook (note: focus on new sections), Karypis notes on Chp. 2 ([PDF]), |
| 04/09/12 Monday | Collective Communications & Mappings | Chp. 4 in PCA textbook, Karypis notes on Chp. 4 ([PDF]), set of textbook figures ([PDF]), lecture notes ([PPT], [PDF]) |
| 04/13/12 Friday | Case Study on PCA Networks: InfiniBand | Lecture notes ([PPT], [PDF]) |
| 04/23/12 Monday | PCA Beyond Our Course | Lecture notes ([PPT], [PDF]) |
| NAME | ASSIGNED | DUE | DESCRIPTION |
| HW #1 | 01/09/12 Monday | 01/18/12 Wednesday | Carefully survey the literature and then write an original, technical survey paper (single-spaced, single-column, 11-point font, about 5-6 pages) entirely in your own words that provides a concise history of "supercomputing" (a.k.a., high-performance computing or HPC, the high end of PCA). Craft a title to emphasize the theme of your paper, and divide content in your paper into several sections. From your survey and analysis, end your paper with a section rendering conclusions about the future of computing and supercomputing in your opinion, followed by your list of references used. For your paper, find, leverage, and cite at least five scholarly references (i.e., refereed and published conference or journal papers or books), and cite them in the body of your paper where and in order used (i.e., first is [1]). Note: A figure or two from any particular source may be reused in your paper if and only if that source is properly cited, but text or other content from sources may not. All HW#1 papers are to be submitted via Sakai with TurnItIn checking. |
| HW #2 | 01/23/12 Monday | 01/27/12 Friday | Carefully survey the literature and then write an original paper (i.e., your own writing, no copying sentences and rephrasing) that describes, compares, and contrasts the following classical abstraction models in PCA: PRAM, BSP, and LogP. What are the strengths and weaknesses of each? Include at least one example of each. General requirements are the same for HW#2 as HW#1, except that only 3-4 pages and only 3 scholarly references are required here. |
| HW #3 | 01/27/12 Friday | 02/06/12 Monday | See the handout for details about this homework on MPI. As always, all work and code in this assignment are to be original work. |
| Class Project | 01/30/12 Monday | 02/20/12 Monday (proposal); 05/02/12 Wednesday (report) | See the handout for details about the project. As always, all writing is to be original, and all figures, tables, and codes borrowed from other sources are to be clearly cited and attributed. |
| HW #4 | 02/08/12 Wednesday | 02/15/12 Wednesday | See the handout for details about this homework on UPC. As always, all work and code in this assignment are to be original work. |
| DAY AND TIME | TYPE |
| February 27, Monday | Exam #1 |
| April 20, Friday | Exam #2 |
Introduction
to Parallel Computing by LLNL
NSF CHREC Center
University HPC
Center
National Lambda Rail
Florida Lambda Rail