A practically oriented introduction to programming paradigms for parallel computers. Considers definitions of program efficiency on parallel computers, addresses the modelling, analysis and measurement of program performance. Description, implementation and use of parallel programming languages, parallel features of operating systems, library routines and applications. 

At the completion of this course the student will:

• be able to program more than one parallel machine in more than one specialised programming language or programming system
• be able to descriptively compare the performance of different programs and methods on one  machine
• be aware of the elements of parallel programming language and system implementation
• be aware of the history and developments in the field.

Assignments (30%), Final Examination (70%)

Thirty one-hour lectures, six laboratory sessions.

COMP2310; 6 units of 2000-series COMP courses; and 6 units of 2000-series MATH courses or COMP2600

• Lin, C. & Snyder, L., Principles of Parallel Programming, Pearson International edition.
• Grama, A., Gupta, A., Karypis, G. & Kumar, V., Introduction to Parallel Computing, 2nd edition, Addison-Wesley, 2003.

Other Reading Material

• Wilkinson, Barry & Allen, Michael Parallel Programming: techniques and applications using networked workstations and parallel computers, .Prentice Hall 2nd edition (2004).
• Bryant, R.E. and O'Hallaron, D. Computer Systems: A Programmer's Perspective, Pearson/Prentice Hall..
• Dowd, Kevin & Severance, Charles High Performance Computing, O'Reilly & Associates Inc. 2nd edition 1998.
• Gropp, W., Lusk, W. & Skjellum, A.Using MPI: Portable Parallel Programming with the Message-Passing Interface MIT Press 1999,
• Gropp, W., Lusk, W. & Thakur,R Using MPI-2: Advanced Features of the Message-Passing Interface MIT Press 1999, ISBN 0-262-057133-1.
• Butenhof, D.R. Programming with POSIX Threads Addison-Wesley 1997.