MIME-Version: 1.0 Server: CERN/3.0 Date: Monday, 16-Dec-96 23:16:02 GMT Content-Type: text/html Content-Length: 3846 Last-Modified: Sunday, 13-Nov-94 07:30:44 GMT CS617 Course Format

CS 617 Course Format

Thorsten von Eicken

Fall, 1994



The entire course will have a little ''research flair'' to it which means that few things more than two years old will be discussed. The down-side is that no textbook is available to complement the course. I am still searching for a good introductory parallel programming book and would appreciate any recommendations. The material presented in class will however be complemented with conference and journal papers.

Weekly problem sets will provide an opportunity to let the material presented in class ''sink in''. Accounts on the NCSA CM-5 for this purpose should be available shortly. I am also purchasing a small cluster of SPARCstation-20's connected by an ATM network which I hope to make available by the end of september. This platform will be significantly more shaky than the CM-5, but it will offer the opportunity to dig much deeper into the system.

Towards the second half of the term (right after Columbus day) we will form small groups to start projects. The basic mindset you should have is that you are writing for an upcoming conference. You should end-up with a report of 10-15 double-spaced pages. You will have to innovate beyond existing work, as represented by a few recent papers, and provide evidenceÑtypically in the form of data collected from experimentsÑto justify the innovation. The relative weighting of synthesis and analysis depends on your preferences but neither should have zero weight. Design studies are great; so is gathering relevant facts.

In my view this is an ''advanced topics'' course intended to provide food for thought. In your project, you can extend any of the topics presented in class, dig into issues encountered in the homeworks, integrate disparate approaches, or pick-up on systems issues not covered in the course. I hope that the ATM cluster, in particular, will offer ample ground for coming up with new ideas and testing them out.

At the end of the course you will have the opportunity to present your project to the entire class (and others in the department) in a poster session: each group prepares a 3'x4' poster with text and diagrams explaining the project. During the poster session, you will have 5Ð10 minutes to present your project, and you will get to know what others did. Take a look at the CS516 posters in front of my office to get an idea (I expect this terms posters to be even better!)

Prerequisites

Basic familiarity with parallel computing (message passing, data parallel, shared memory programming models) OR basic familiarity with computer systems (processor pipeline, assembly language, memory hierarchy, virtual memory system, thread packages, system calls)

This course will require significant breadth knowledge. Not everyone is expected to know everything. Problem sets and projects will be done in groups. You are expected to catch-up on the topics you feel less comfortable with and I will adapt the lectures to the average knowledge. The bottom line is that if you are determined to learn (and have the time!), you are welcome to the course.

Grading

The problem sets and the term project will be done in groups of two and you must choose a different partner for each of the three first problem sets. The problem sets are graded: I expect you to take a serious crack at each of the problems and to turn-in a well-rounded solution for one problem per set. The final grade will roughly be composed of: 40% problem sets, 40% project report, 10% project presentation, 10% class participation.



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