Course Outline and Lecture Notes

Copies of slides presented at the lectures will be provided in PDF and PostScript (PS) format.

• Introduction to Distributed and High-Performance Computing:
  What is DHPC; Milestones in DHPC history; Some DHPC applications.
  PDF | PS

• High-Performance Computing architectures:
  Overview of the major classes of HPC architectures and their evolution.
  PDF | PS

• Parallel programming models and performance analysis:
  Parameterisation, modelling, performance analysis, efficiency, and benchmarking of DHPC systems.
  PDF | PS

• Programming parallel computers:
  Overview of parallel programming, parallel languages, parallelizing compilers, message passing and data parallel programming models.
  PDF | PDF

• Message passing programming and MPI:
  Uses; historical background and use on MIMD machines; current implementations; programming using the Message Passing Interface (MPI).
  PDF | PS

• Data parallel programming and HPF
  Data parallel programming paradigm; historical background and use on SIMD machines; array syntax; Fortran 90 and High Performance Fortran (HPF).
  PDF | PS

• Shared memory programming, threads and OpenMP
  Use on shared memory machines; threads, locks and mutexes; programming using OpenMP; parallel Java.
  PDF | PS

• Case Study - Monte Carlo Simulation of the Ising Model:
  Case study from computational physics; different approaches to parallelism; regular vs irregular problems; techniques and tricks for parallel implementation in MPI and HPF.
  PDF | PS

• Distributed computing I:
  Distributed systems issues; transparency and design goals; architecture models; software requirements; shared file systems; remote procedure calls; service location, naming and discovery; network latency; interprocess communication.
  PDF | PS

• Distributed computing II:
  Time and ordering in distributed systems; vector time; fault tolerance; Byzantine Generals problem.
  PDF | PPT

• Distributed computing middleware:
  Middleware; DCE; CORBA; Java RMI.
  • Middleware, DCE: PDF | PS
  • CORBA: PS | HTML
  • Java RMI: PDF | PS

• Metacomputing:
  Metacomputing (or Grid Computing) over local and wide-area networks; metacomputing environments (Nexus and Globus, Legion, DISCWorld, ...); cluster management software; The Grid.
  • Metacomputing and cluster management software: PDF | PS
  • Globus: PDF | PS
  • DISCWorld: PDF | PS

• Cluster computing and Internet computing:
  
  • Cluster computing and Beowulf PC clusters: PDF | PS
  • Internet computing: PDF | PS
  
  

Slides for the 1999 DHPC course are also available.