CISC 372 Parallel Programming

Syllabus, Fall, 2001

General Information

Course meeting time: Mon, Wed, Fri at 12:20 to 1:10pm place: 218 Smith Hall

Saunders' office hours : 1:30-2:30 Mon, Wed, Fri, and by arrangement.

Text: P. S. Pacheco, Parallel Programming with MPI, Morgan Kaufmann, 1997.

Topics

-- Tentative Coverage, order, and pace

Preface, 6pg Week 1.
Chapter 1, Intro, 10pg
Chapter 2, Overview, 29pg Week 2.
Chapter 3, Greetings example, 12pg
Chapter 4, Numerical Integration example, 12pg Week 3.
Chapter 5, Collective communication, 24pg
Chapter 6, Grouping data, 22pg Week 4.
Chapter 7, Communicators, topologies, 26pg Week 5.
Chapter 8, I/O, 42pg Week 6.
Chapter 9, Debugging, 38pg Week 7.
Chapter 10, Design and coding examples, 28pg
Chapter 11, Performance, 14pg Week 8.
Chapter 12, Performance, 20pg
Chapter 13, Advanced communiction examples, 36pg
Chapter 14, Parallel algorithms, 19pg
Chapter 15, Parallel libraries, 22pg
Chapter 16, Future, 2pg
Appendix A, MPI commands, 36pg
Appendix B, MPI URLs, 4pg

Homework

There will be four homework assignments. Some exercises will involve programming and online algorithm measurements. Others will be of the "pencil and paper" variety.

The programming is to be Java or possibly C++. Grading of programs you write takes into consideration:

clarity - documentation, modularity, code structure, naming, formatting, ...
correctness - completeness and accuracy of the solution
performance - time and memory requirements of your solution.

Exams

There will be three exams, tentatively scheduled for Tuesday, March 13, Thursday April 19, and Friday May 25 (our final exam slot). These exams will not be comprehensive, and will be closed book and closed note.

"Examinations are formidable even to the best prepared, for the greatest fool may ask more than the wisest man can answer." (Charles Caleb Colton)

Grading

Homeworks - 34% more or less
Exams - 22% each
Class participation - this is the more or less

Late assignments

Assignments are due at the beginning of class on the assigned date. Pencil and paper exercises will NOT be accepted late, since sketches of solutions will be handed out at the end of the class in which the homework is due. Unexcused late programs will be penalized 5% per class meeting, and will not be accepted more than four class meetings late.

Policies

Exams, pencil and paper exercises, and programming assignments are intended to measure your individual performance and accomplishments in the course. Thus, the following are considered cheating and will be dealt with accordingly: looking the solution up in any source other than those listed above; looking up the solution by locating a paper in the literature; looking in any way at solutions from other courses at Delaware or elsewhere; posting the problem on the Internet, seeking a solution; etc. You may ask others for clarifications of the problem statement. If in doubt, ask the instructor.

Final grades will be formulated by totaling the grades from exams, and homeworks for each student (weighted as noted above), and then assigning appropriate boundaries between letter grades (including +/-). For those close to the boundaries, class attendance and participation can be a positive (or negative) factor.

Objectives of the course:

1. To give the student a good working knowledge of important algorithms in several domains.

2. To give the student an appreciation for, and an understanding of, algorithm design and analysis.

Course webpage:

http://www.cis.udel.edu/~saunders/courses/320/01s/

University Catalog 320 Course Description, CIS Dept. 320 Course Description.
syllabus top

Corrections, suggestions and comments to saunders@cis.udel.edu