Parallel Computer Architectures

The most exciting development in parallel computer architecture is the convergence of traditionally disparate approaches on a common machine structure. This book explains the forces behind this convergence of shared-memory, message-passing, data parallel, and data-driven computing architectures. It then examines the design issues that are critical to all parallel architecture across the full range of modern design, covering data access, communication performance, coordination of cooperative work, and correct implementation of useful semantics. It not only describes the hardware and software techniques for addressing each of these issues but also explores how these techniques interact in the same system. Examining architecture from an application-driv...

Your CPU meter shows a problem. One core is running at 100 percent, but all the other cores are idle. Your application is CPU-bound, but you are using only a fraction of the computing power of your multicore system. Is there a way to get better performance? The answer, in a nutshell, is parallel programming. Where you once would have written the kind of sequential code that is familiar to all programmers, you now find that this no longer meets your performance goals. To use your system's CPU resources efficiently, you need to split your application into pieces that can run at the same time. Of course, this is easier said than done. Parallel programming has a reputation for being the domain of experts and a minefield of subtle, hard-to-reproduce softw...

The goal of this book is to present and compare various options one for systems architecture from two separate points of view. One, that of the information technology decision-maker who must choose a solution matching company business requirements, and secondly that of the systems architect who finds himself between the rock of changes in hardware and software technologies and the hard place of changing business needs.Different aspects of server architecture are presented, from databases designed for parallel architectures to high-availability systems, and touching en route on often- neglected performance aspects. 1. The book provides IT managers, decision makers and project leaders who want to acquire knowledge sufficient to understand the choices m...