Abstract
The use of high performance computing systems is steadily increasing. For instance, systems composed of PC clusters interconnected by high performance local networks is one of the major trends in parallel/distributed computing nowadays, since these clusters yield parallel systems more powerful than some super-computers, for a fraction of the price. Although a great deal of effort has been undertaken on system-level and programming environment issues for such systems, little attention has been paid to computing issues. In this paper we discuss theoretical (BSP-like) models and their adaptation to solve important classes of problems on high performance computing systems. We show as an example a coarse-grained parallel algorithm to solve the maximum weighted clique problem in interval graphs. It is theoretically optimal, since it requires only a constant number of communication rounds, and is also efficient in practice as demonstrated by reported experimental results obtained on a Myrinet-connected PC cluster. Noticeably, even super-linear speedups can occur for large data because of swapping factors. We conclude that these models are well adapted to the task of algorithm design for high performance computing systems.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
A.A. Bertossi and M.A. Bonuccelli. Some Parallel Algorithms on Interval Graphs. Discrete Applied Mathematics, 16:101–111, 1987.
E. Caceres, F. Dehne, A. Ferreira, P. Flocchini, I. Rieping, A. Roncato, N. Santoro, and S. Song. Efficient parallel graph algorithms for coarse grained multicomputers and bsp. In P. Degano, R. Gorrieri, and A. Marchetti-Spaccamela, editors, Proceedings of ICALP’97, volume 1256 of Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 390–400, Springer-Verlag, 1997.
Culler, R. Karp, D. Patterson, A. Sahay, K. Schauser, E. Santos, R. Subrarnonian, and T. Von Eicken. LogP: Towards a realistic model of parallel computation In Fourth ACM SIGPLAN Symposium on the Principles and Practice of Parallel Programming, 1–12, 1993.
F. Dehne, A. Fabri, and A. Rau-chaplin. Scalable parallel geometric algorithms for coarse grained multicomputers. In Proc. 9th ACM Symp. on Computational Geometry, 298–307, 1993.
E. Dekel and S. Sahni. Parallel Scheduling Algorithms. Operations Research, 31(1):24–49, 1983.
A. Ferreira. In A. Zomaya, editor, Handbook of Parallel and Distributed Computing, chapter Parallel and Communication Algorithms for Hypercube Multiprocessors, 568–589, McGraw-Hill, New York (USA), 1996.
A. Ferreira, I. Guérin-Lassous, K. Marcus, and A. rau-chaplin. Parallel computation of interval graphs on PC clusters: Algorithms and experiments. Research Report 97–30, LIAFA, University of Paris 7, France.
A. Ferreira, C. Kenyon, A. rau-chaplin, and S. Ubda. D-dimensional range search on multicomputers. In Proceedings of the 11th IEEE International Parallel Processing Symposium, 616–620, IEEE CS Press, 1997.
A. Ferreira, A. Rau-Chaplin, and S. Ubeda. Scalable 2d convex hull and triangulation algorithms for coarse-grained multicomputers. In Proceedings of the 7th IEEE Symposium on Parallel and Distributed Processing - SPDP’95, 561–569, San Antonio (USA), October 1995, IEEE Press.
A. Ferreira and J.M. Robson. Fast and scalable parallel algorithms for knapsack and similar problems. Journal of Parallel and Distributed Computing, 39(1):113, November 1996.
A. Ferreira and S. Ubeda. Ultra-fast parallel contour tracking, with applications to thinning. Pattern Recognition, 27(7):867–878, 1994.
A. Ferreira and S. Ubeda. Parallel complexity of the medial axis transform. In Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Image Processing - ICIP’95, volume II, 105–107, Washington DC, October 1995. IEEE Press.
A. Geist, A. Beguelin, J. Dongarra, W. Jiang, R Manchek, and V. Sunderman. PVM: Parallel Virtual Machine - A Users’ Guide and Tutorial for Networked Parallel Computing, 1994.
A.V. Gerbessiotis and L.G. Valiant. Direct bulk-synchronous parallel algorithms. Journal of Parallel and Distributed Computing, 251–267, 1994.
M.C. Golumbic. Algorithmic graph theory and perfect graphs. Academic Press, New York, 1980.
M.T. Goodrich. Communication-efficient parallel sorting. In Proc. of 28th Symp. on Theory of Computing, 247–255, 1996.
U.I. Gupta, D.T. Lee, and J.Y.-T. Leung. An Optimal Solution for the Channel-Assignment Problem. IEEE Transaction on Computers, C-28:807–810, 1979.
A. Moitra and R. Johnson. PT-Optimal Algorithms for Interval Graphs. In Proc. 26th Annual Allerton Conference Communication,Control and Computing, volume 1, 274–282, 1988.
S. Olariu. Parallel graph algorithms. In A. Zomaya, editor, Handbook of Parallel and Distributed Computing, 355–403. McGraw-Hill, 1996.
L. Valiant. A bridging model for parallel computation. Communication of ACM, 38(8):103–111, 1990.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1999 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Ferreira, A. (1999). On the Design of Parallel Discrete Algorithms for High Performance Computing Systems. In: Pardalos, P.M. (eds) Parallel Processing of Discrete Problems. The IMA Volumes in Mathematics and its Applications, vol 106. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-1492-2_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-1492-2_4
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4612-7165-9
Online ISBN: 978-1-4612-1492-2
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive