Massively Parallel Computing INFO4173 (Master)

• SWS: 2 Lectures + 2 Exercises - 6 ECTS
• The block course will be offered in English.
• We will cover the entire course including lectures and exercises within one week (05.03.-11.03.2020).

• The lectures start at 8:30 am.
• Please arrange something to eat for yourself because there is no canteen or cafeteria at Sand and the vending machines run at limited capacity during term break.

Graphics processors contain hundreds of parallel processing elements and thus enable us to explore this realm of massively parallel computing today. The high number of parallel cores poses a great challenge for software design that must expose massive parallelism to benefit from this hardware. The main purpose of the lecture is to teach practical algorithm design for such parallel hardware.

• Introduction to Parallel Computing
• Basic Algorithms:
  • Map, reduce, parallel branching, sorting
  • Parallel data storage and retrieval
• Parallel Computation:
  • FFT, particle systems
  • Parallel linear equation solvers, parallel PDEs
  • Parallel complexity analysis and profiling
  • System integration and graphics processor clusters

To take part, do the following:

• Please enroll in ILIAS
• Make sure that you have a working WSI account. Otherwise you will not be able to take part in and get a grading on the exercises.
  • You can apply for a WSI account with the "Antrag fuer einen WSI-Account" here.
  • Fill the top half of the application (read everything carefully and choose a strong password consisting of at least 8 characters (letters AND numbers, no special characters), print it and sign at "Unterschrift Antragsteller".
  • Hand in the application at MvL 6, Room 20-31/A6 or send a scan/photo of it to Benjamin Resch via mail till Thrusday, February 27th.
  • To test if you have a working WSI account, you can try to log in on sshgw.informatik.uni-tuebingen.de via ssh.

Exercises during block course

• groups of two students are allowed
• formal exercises are handed out and are processed during the block course
• it is recommended to participate in the practical course which continues in the summer term

Oral exam

• There will be an oral exam at the end of term

Grading

• oral exam
• If you manage to get > 60% in all practical exercises you will earn a bonus of 0.6 grades.