Parallel Programming Languages and Systems (Level 10) (U01963)

? Credit Points : 10 ? SCQF Level : 10 ? Acronym : INF-4-PPLS

The course familiarizes students with the issues involved in designing, implementing and applying parallel programming systems. Initial motivation will be provided by consideration of a number of typical high performance applications and parallel architectures. This will highlight the role of parallel software systems as a means of bridging the gap between these and allow abstraction of the issues which must be addressed by any such system (partitioning, communication, agglomeration and scheduling). It will explore the ways in which these challenges have been addressed by a range of systems, including both de facto standards and more adventurous research projects.

Entry Requirements

? Pre-requisites : Successful completion of Year 3 of an Informatics Single or Combined Honours Degree, or equivalent by permission of the School. Students must also be competent programmers in C, C++ or Java.

? Prohibited combinations : Parallel Programming Languages and Systems (Level 11)

Subject Areas

Home subject area

Net-Centric Computing, (School of Informatics, Schedule O)

Other subject areas

Parallel and Distributed Computing, (School of Informatics, Schedule O)

Programming Languages and Techniques, (School of Informatics, Schedule O)

Delivery Information

? Normal year taken : 4th year

? Delivery Period : Semester 2 (Blocks 3-4)

? Contact Teaching Time : 2 hour(s) per week for 10 weeks

First Class Information

Date	Start	End	Room	Area	Additional Information
08/01/2008	09:00	09:50	Room G.8, 1 George Square (Neuroscience)	Med+Vet

All of the following classes

Type	Day	Start	End	Area
Lecture	Tuesday	09:00	09:50	Central
Lecture	Friday	09:00	09:50	Central

Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes

Students who complete the course will be able to:
- Describe generic issues (as discussed in the syllabus) which must be addressed by any parallel programming system.
- Explain, given a description of a previously unseen parallel application, where specific instances of the generic issues will arise.
- Explain, in considerable detail, the ways in which the generic issues are addressed by the MPI and Pthreads programming models and their supporting infrastructure.
- Apply their practical experience with MPI and Pthreads to write clean, adaptable and scalable parallel programs for simple applications.
- Compare the approaches proposed by a range of more speculative programming models.