Spring 2008 ECE 568: Introduction to
Parallel
Processing
Instructor:
Ahmed Louri
Director : High-Performance Computing Architectures and Technologies (HPCAT) Lab
Department of Electrical and
Computer Engineering
University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ - 85721
Phone:
(520) 621-2318
Fax:
(520) 621-8076
E-mail:
louri@ece.arizona.edu
Office Hours : Tuesday and Thursday, 3:30 - 4:30pm. (If you cannot make the office hours,
you may schedule an appointment).
General
Information
This course is intended to
introduce graduate students to the field of modern computer
architecture design stressing speedup and parallel processing
techniques. The course is a comprehensive study of parallel processing
techniques and their applications from basic concepts to
state-of-the-art parallel computer systems. Topics to be covered
in this course include the following: First, the need for parallel
processing and the limitations of uniprocessors are introduced. Next, a
substantial overview and basic concepts of parallel processing and
their impact on computer architecture are introduced. This will include
major parallel processing paradigms such as pipelining, superscalar, superpipeline,
vector processing, multithreading, multiprocessing,
multicomputing, and massively parallel processing. We then
address the architectural support for parallel processing such
as: (1) parallel memory organization and design, (2) cache
design, (3) cache coherence strategies, (4) shared-memory vs
distributed-memory systems, (5) symmetric multiprocessors (SMPs),
distributed-shared memory(DSM) multiprocessors, multicomputers, and
distributed systems, (6) processor design (RISC, superscalar,
superpipeline, multithreading, simultaneous multithreading, and
speculative computing designs), (6) communication subsystem, (7)
computer networks and networked computing systems such as cluster
computing (COWs) and network of workstations (NOWs), (8) emerging
technologies (such as optical computing, optical interconnection
networks, optical memories), (9) case studies of modern
systems (commercial as well as experimental). If time
permits, (10) we will address parallel algorithm design and
software requirements for parallel computing.
Syllabus
Class Timings : Tuesday and Thursday, 12:30pm - 1:45pm
Location : HARV 415
Textbooks:
There are no required
textbooks for this class. The following are some of the recommended
books:
- Advanced Computer Architecture:
Parallelism, Scalability, Programmability, by Kai Hwang, McGraw
Hill 1993.
- Parallel Computer Architecture:
A Hardware/Software Approch, by David Culler J. P. Singh, Morgan
Kaufmann, 1999.
- Scalable Parallel Computing:
Technology, Architecture, Programming, Kai Hwang and Zhiwei Xu,
McGraw Hill 1998.
- Principles and Practices of
Interconnection Networks, William James Dally and Brian Towles,
Morgan Kauffman 2004.
- Scalable Shared-Memory Multiprocessing, Daniel E. Lenoski and Wolf-Dietrich Weber,
Morgan Kauffman.
Lecture Videos / Notes
Assignments
Term Paper Presentations