Writing sequential programs for parallel processors: implementation experience

The PRAM model has proven to be a fertile ground for algorithm development. However, it assumes that processors operate synchronously, whereas shared-memory multiprocessors are asynchronous and are likely to remain so. This has motivated development of asynchronous PRAM models. Observing the dependence constraints implicit in a computation allows the author to design a large class of synchronous algorithms which run correctly on asynchronous processors without degradation in either time or work bounds. Of great practical interest is his use of randomization for dynamic load-balancing, dealing with asynchrony and providing transparent parallelization. This allows him to give a sequential specification for a parallel algorithm. This, in turn allows him to write sequential programs for parallel processors. He discusses his experience implementing asynchronous PRAM algorithms on shared memory multiprocessors