Title :
Teaching parallel processing using free resources
Author :
Hartman, Janet ; Sanders, Dean
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Appl. Comput. Sci., Illinois State Univ., Normal, IL, USA
Abstract :
Parallel processing can be taught effectively even though parallel hardware is not available. Free software is available to support the three major paradigms of parallel computing. Parallaxis is a software simulator that is based on the SIMD model. PVM and MPI allow one to treat a network of workstations as a message passing MIMD multicomputer with distributed memory. A locally developed shared memory simulator supports the MIMD model of computing with a common shared memory. While none of these products is superior to an actual parallel computer, each can be used in a variety of courses to give students experience with parallel algorithms
Keywords :
computer aided instruction; computer science education; distributed memory systems; educational courses; message passing; public domain software; shared memory systems; teaching; virtual machines; MPI; PVM; Parallaxis; SIMD model; distributed memory; educational courses; free resources; free software; message passing MIMD multicomputer; parallel algorithms; parallel hardware; parallel processing teaching; shared memory simulator; software simulator; workstation network; Computational modeling; Computer aided instruction; Computer networks; Computer science; Concurrent computing; Education; Hardware; Message passing; Parallel processing; Workstations;
Conference_Titel :
Frontiers in Education Conference, 1996. FIE '96. 26th Annual Conference., Proceedings of
Conference_Location :
Salt Lake City, UT
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-3348-9
DOI :
10.1109/FIE.1996.568549
