Parallel Algorithms In Computational Science

This contributed volume highlights two areas of fundamental interest in high-performance computing: core algorithms for important kernels and computationally demanding applications. The first few chapters explore algorithms, numerical techniques, and their parallel formulations for a variety of kernels that arise in applications. The rest of the volume focuses on state-of-the-art applications from diverse domains. By structuring the volume around these two areas, it presents a comprehensive view of the application landscape for high-performance computing, while also enabling readers to develop new applications using the kernels. Readers will learn how to choose the most suitable parallel algorithms for any given application, ensuring that theory and practicality are clearly connected. Applications using these techniques are illustrated in detail, including: Computational materials science and engineering Computational cardiovascular analysis Multiscale analysis of wind turbines and turbomachinery Weather forecasting Machine learning techniques Parallel Algorithms in Computational Science and Engineering will be an ideal reference for applied mathematicians, engineers, computer scientists, and other researchers who utilize high-performance computing in their work.

Our aim in this book is to present and enlarge upon those aspects of parallel computing that are needed by practitioners of computational science. Today al most all classical sciences, such as mathematics, physics, chemistry and biology, employ numerical methods to help gain insight into nature. In addition to the traditional numerical methods, such as matrix inversions and the like, a whole new field of computational techniques has come to assume central importance, namely the numerical simulation methods. These methods are much less fully developed than those which are usually taught in a standard numerical math ematics course. However, they form a whole new set of tools for research in the physical sciences and are applicable to a very wide range of problems. At the same time there have been not only enormous strides forward in the speed and capability of computers but also dramatic new developments in computer architecture, and particularly in parallel computers. These improvements offer exciting prospects for computer studies of physical systems, and it is the new techniques and methods connected with such computer simulations that we seek to present in this book, particularly in the light of the possibilities opened up by parallel computers. It is clearly not possible at this early stage to write a definitive book on simulation methods and parallel computing.

There is a software gap between the hardware potential and the performance that can be attained using today's software parallel program development tools. The tools need manual intervention by the programmer to parallelize the code. Programming a parallel computer requires closely studying the target algorithm or application, more so than in the traditional sequential programming we have all learned. The programmer must be aware of the communication and data dependencies of the algorithm or application. This book provides the techniques to explore the possible ways to program a parallel computer for a given application.

This book presents advances in high performance computing as well as advances accomplished using high performance computing. It contains a collection of papers presenting results achieved in the collaboration of scientists from computer science, mathematics, physics, and mechanical engineering. From science problems to mathematical algorithms and on to the effective implementation of these algorithms on massively parallel and cluster computers, the book presents state-of-the-art methods and technology, and exemplary results in these fields.

Motivation It is now possible to build powerful single-processor and multiprocessor systems and use them efficiently for data processing, which has seen an explosive ex pansion in many areas of computer science and engineering. One approach to meeting the performance requirements of the applications has been to utilize the most powerful single-processor system that is available. When such a system does not provide the performance requirements, pipelined and parallel process ing structures can be employed. The concept of parallel processing is a depar ture from sequential processing. In sequential computation one processor is in volved and performs one operation at a time. On the other hand, in parallel computation several processors cooperate to solve a problem, which reduces computing time because several operations can be carried out simultaneously. Using several processors that work together on a given computation illustrates a new paradigm in computer problem solving which is completely different from sequential processing. From the practical point of view, this provides sufficient justification to investigate the concept of parallel processing and related issues, such as parallel algorithms. Parallel processing involves utilizing several factors, such as parallel architectures, parallel algorithms, parallel programming lan guages and performance analysis, which are strongly interrelated. In general, four steps are involved in performing a computational problem in parallel. The first step is to understand the nature of computations in the specific application domain.

Parallel-Algorithms for Regular Architectures is the first book to concentrate exclusively on algorithms and paradigms for programming parallel computers such as the hypercube, mesh, pyramid, and mesh-of-trees.

Parallel processing has been an enabling technology in scientific computing for more than 20 years. This book is the first in-depth discussion of parallel computing in 10 years; it reflects the mix of topics that mathematicians, computer scientists, and computational scientists focus on to make parallel processing effective for scientific problems. Presently, the impact of parallel processing on scientific computing varies greatly across disciplines, but it plays a vital role in most problem domains and is absolutely essential in many of them. Parallel Processing for Scientific Computing is divided into four parts: The first concerns performance modeling, analysis, and optimization; the second focuses on parallel algorithms and software for an array of problems common to many modeling and simulation applications; the third emphasizes tools and environments that can ease and enhance the process of application development; and the fourth provides a sampling of applications that require parallel computing for scaling to solve larger and realistic models that can advance science and engineering.

Advancements in microprocessor architecture, interconnection technology, and software development have fueled rapid growth in parallel and distributed computing. However, this development is only of practical benefit if it is accompanied by progress in the design, analysis and programming of parallel algorithms. This concise textbook provides, in one place, three mainstream parallelization approaches, Open MPP, MPI and OpenCL, for multicore computers, interconnected computers and graphical processing units. An overview of practical parallel computing and principles will enable the reader to design efficient parallel programs for solving various computational problems on state-of-the-art personal computers and computing clusters. Topics covered range from parallel algorithms, programming tools, OpenMP, MPI and OpenCL, followed by experimental measurements of parallel programs’ run-times, and by engineering analysis of obtained results for improved parallel execution performances. Many examples and exercises support the exposition.