CHAPTER ORGANIZATION AND OVERVIEW
Chapter 1 defines the two main classes of algorithms dealt with in this book: serial algorithms, parallel algorithms, and regular iterative algorithms. Design considerations for parallel computers are discussed as well as their close tie to parallel algorithms. The benefits of using parallel computers are quantified in terms of speedup factor and the effect of communication overhead between the processors. The chapter concludes by discussing two applications of parallel computers.
Chapter 2 discusses the techniques used to enhance the performance of a single computer such as increasing the clock frequency, parallelizing the arithmetic and logic unit (ALU) structure, pipelining, very long instruction word (VLIW), superscalar computing, and multithreading.
Chapter 3 reviews the main types of parallel computers discussed here and includes shared memory, distributed memory, single instruction multiple data stream (SIMD), systolic processors, and multicore systems.
Chapter 4 reviews shared-memory multiprocessor systems and discusses two main issues intimately related to them: cache coherence and process synchronization.
Chapter 5 reviews the types of interconnection networks used in parallel processors. We discuss simple networks such as buses and move on to star, ring, and mesh topologies. More efficient networks such as crossbar and multistage interconnection networks are discussed.
Chapter 6 reviews the concurrency platform software tools developed ...
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