by Ian Foster
This multi-part are on parallel algorithm design is based on the book Designing and Building Parallel Programs by Ian Foster.
Parallel algorithm design is not easily reduced to simple recipes. Rather, it requires the sort of integrative thought that is commonly referred to as “creativity.” However, it can benefit from a methodical approach that [...]

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By Dave Strenski and Brian Durwood
In configuring next generation large scale parallel processing arrays some teams are relying on “heterogeneous processing”. Basically a fifty-cent phrase describing a microprocessor with one or more on board co-processors for high-speed on-node processing, most typically GPU, FPGA, Cell, and/or DSP. While the debate continues about the right ratio of [...]

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nHD is a multi-GPU 2nd order full Godunov three-dimensional uniform-mesh Euler equations solver for calorically ideal, compressible gas. nHD uses CUDA C with MPI and runs on a cluster of multi-GPU machines to accelerate computational hydrodynamics calculations.
Full Godunov method solves the hydrodynamic equations by discretizing the fluid and calculating the nonlinear evolution of the discretized [...]

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by Daan Leijen and Judd Hall (Published in MSDN magazine in Oct 2007)
Multi-processor machines are now becoming standard while the speed increases of single processors have slowed down. The key to performance improvements is therefore to run a program on multiple processors in parallel. Unfortunately, it is still very hard to write algorithms that actually [...]

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If you were looking for lessons on energy-efficient computing, one person you would want to speak with would be Steve Furber, principal designer of the highly successful ARM (Acorn RISC Machine) processor.
In ACM Queue’s interview this month he shares some of the lessons on energy-efficient computing he has learned through working on these and subsequent [...]

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Hewlett-Packard’s latest advanced research facility opening in Singapore Wednesday (Feb. 24) will embark on projects for using cloud computing to alter development of data centers and application design principles.
HP Labs Singapore will serve as a research hub in the Asia Pacific region.
“Labs Singapore aligns very closely with HP’s strategic growth areas and significantly expands the [...]

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by Somasegar, Microsoft
More than ever before, today’s developers are open to considering and using multiple technologies to enable them to build solutions smoothly and deliver them to their customers quickly. There are an increasing number of choices available for developers in terms of programming styles. Our goal is to provide fantastic support for [...]

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As researchers in all major science domains struggle to keep up with the exponentially growing amount of digitally-based data, the HPC (high-performance computing) community will evolve to include HPD, or high-performance data, to benefit researchers who need to access, analyze and store extremely large data sets in significantly shorter amounts of time.
“We are figuring out [...]

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by Anton Shilov
Advanced Micro Devices said this week that it would not cut-down feature set of its forthcoming AMD Opteron processors code-named Magny-Cours with eight or twelve processing engines. This means that all next-generation multi-core chips from AMD will have the same functionality and features and will only differ in terms of performance, which is [...]

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By Andy Patrizio
The arms race in the chip world is to see how many cores can be crammed into a processor. Intel and AMD have been tied at six-core server chips, with an eight-core Intel Nehalem due later this year. But AMD beat them handily with the release of the 12-core Opteron. Hardware Central has [...]

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Cortus announces uCLinux for the APS3 family of processors. This version of Linux is ideally suited to low power, high performance, embedded systems. The APS3 family of processors are modern, powerful processors, specifically designed for embedded systems, featuring a tiny silicon footprint. The APS3 architecture is ideally suited for uCLinux. The clean, uniform, architecture means [...]

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by Greg Pfister
The notion of “parallel PowerPoint” is a poster child for the uselessness of multicore on client computers. Rendering a slide two, four, eight times faster is a joke. Nobody needs it.
Running PowerPoint 4, 16, 64 times longer on my laptop battery, though, that’s useful. I am purely sick of carrying around a 3 [...]

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by Greg Pfister
Do a job with 2X the parallelism and use 4X less power — if the hardware is designed right. Yes, it’s a square law. And that “right” hardware design has nothing to do with simplifying the processor design.
No, nobody’s going to achieve that in practice, for reasons I’ll get into below; it’s a [...]

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By Gastón C. Hillar
Most modern threading platforms are already offering task based programming models. Thus, they are allowing developers to follow one of the eight rules for multicore programming written by James Reinders a few years ago. I’m specifically talking about rule #3: “Program in tasks (chores), not threads (cores).”
James suggests that you should leave [...]

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By Asaf Shelly
Locks are a problematic mechanism because they can potentially slow down the system. Sometimes you just need them, usually when working with low-level API and the lower levels of an infrastructure.
There are four basic ways for using a lock:
* Spin-lock : will retain the CPU core until a condition is met
* Atomic Operation [...]

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The National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) will offer a free webinar on Getting Started with Performance Tools from 1:30 to 3 p.m. CST on Thursday, Feb. 25.
This webinar, led by NCSA system engineer Galen Arnold, will provide an introduction to performance tools and techniques. A common application, High Performance Linpack (HPL), will be analyzed [...]

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Attend this webinar to understand-
- Whether you really need HPC
- What data or compute intensive problems can HPC solve for you
- How can contemporary HPC offer an optimal solution
- How companies are realizing huge RoI benefits
- How can you best leverage HPC best practices for your business
Where: Your Desktop
When: Feb 26th, 2010 @ 10:00 am [...]

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At the DICE gaming event, Mark Rein of Epic Games came to promote the Unreal Engine technology and bring the Make Something Unreal modding contest to a close. However, when queried about the plans of Unreal Engine 4 release date, an unexpected answer was given.
Work is still being done on the Unreal Engine 4, but [...]

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By Max Domeika
As a follow-on to Part 1, which included, among other things, an overview of compiler optimization as it relates to parallelization of code for multicore applications, in this second part in this series, the discussion will detail a process for applying these optimizations to your application.
This process consists of four steps:
1. Characterize the [...]

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by Anton Shilov
Advanced Micro Devices said Friday that it had started shipments of its highly-anticipated twelve-core AMD Opteron microprocessors code-named Magny-Cours. The company indicated that the shipments are limited and are intended to prepare for the launch of servers powered by the new chips due later this quarter.
“We have been aggressively sampling production-level parts to [...]

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