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This module serves as the introductory module for the Open Education Cup contest (http://OpenEducationCup.org) collaborative book. This introduction outlines the primary focus of the contest and provides examples to help authors get started with their contest entries.

What is parallel computing, and why should i care?

Parallel computing simply means using more than one computer processor to solve a problem. Classically, computers have been presented to newcomers as “sequential” systems, where the processor does one step at a time. There are still machines and applications where this is true, but today most systems have parallel features. Some examples are shown below.
We hasten to point out that, although we use certain commercial systems and chips as examples, they are by no means the only ones. Additional examples in all categories are available from other companies. The Open Education Cup would welcome modules on any type of parallel system.

Supercomputers achieve astounding speed on scientific computations by using amazing numbers of processors. The Roadrunner system at Los Alamos National Laboratory ( ) is currently the world’s fastest computer, with over 100,000 processor cores combining to reach 1 PetaFLOPS ( 10 15 floating point operations per second).

Servers use multiple processors to handle many simultaneous requests in a timely manner. For example, a web server might use dozens of processors to supply hundreds of pages per second. A 64-processor server ( ) could supply an average university department’s need for computation, file systems, and other support.

Grid computing combines distributed computers (often from different organizations) into one unified system. One vision ( ) is that a scientist working at her desk in Houston can send a problem to be solved by supercomputers in Illinois and California, accessing data in other locations. Other grid computing projects, such as the World Community Grid, seek to use millions of idle PCs to solve important problems, such as searching for candidate drug designs.

Multicore chips include several processor cores on a single computer chip. Even a laptop (or other small system) that uses a multicore chip is a parallel computer. For example, the Quad-core AMD Opteron processor ( ) is one of a family of chips with 4 cores. As another example, the IBM Cell processor chips used in the Roadrunner supercomputer have 8 “Synergistic Processing Elements” (i.e. fast cores) each, plus 1 Power Processing Element (which controls the others).

Graphics processors (often called GPUs) are a special type of chip originally designed for image processing. They feature massive numbers of scalar processors to allow rendering many pixels in parallel. For example, The NVIDIA Tesla series ( ) boasts 240 processors. Such special-purpose parallel chips are the basis for accelerated computing.

In effect, all modern computing is parallel computing.

Getting the most out of a parallel computer requires finding and exploiting opportunities to do several things at once. Some examples of such opportunities in realistic computer applications might include:

Questions & Answers

the diagram of the digestive system
Assiatu Reply
How does twins formed
William Reply
They formed in two ways first when one sperm and one egg are splited by mitosis or two sperm and two eggs join together
Oluwatobi
what is genetics
Josephine Reply
Genetics is the study of heredity
Misack
how does twins formed?
Misack
What is manual
Hassan Reply
discuss biological phenomenon and provide pieces of evidence to show that it was responsible for the formation of eukaryotic organelles
Joseph Reply
what is biology
Yousuf Reply
the study of living organisms and their interactions with one another and their environments
AI-Robot
the study of living organisms and their interactions with one another and their environment.
Wine
discuss the biological phenomenon and provide pieces of evidence to show that it was responsible for the formation of eukaryotic organelles in an essay form
Joseph Reply
what is the blood cells
Shaker Reply
list any five characteristics of the blood cells
Shaker
lack electricity and its more savely than electronic microscope because its naturally by using of light
Abdullahi Reply
advantage of electronic microscope is easily and clearly while disadvantage is dangerous because its electronic. advantage of light microscope is savely and naturally by sun while disadvantage is not easily,means its not sharp and not clear
Abdullahi
cell theory state that every organisms composed of one or more cell,cell is the basic unit of life
Abdullahi
is like gone fail us
DENG
cells is the basic structure and functions of all living things
Ramadan
What is classification
ISCONT Reply
is organisms that are similar into groups called tara
Yamosa
in what situation (s) would be the use of a scanning electron microscope be ideal and why?
Kenna Reply
A scanning electron microscope (SEM) is ideal for situations requiring high-resolution imaging of surfaces. It is commonly used in materials science, biology, and geology to examine the topography and composition of samples at a nanoscale level. SEM is particularly useful for studying fine details,
Hilary
cell is the building block of life.
Condoleezza Reply
what is cell divisoin?
Aron Reply
Diversity of living thing
ISCONT
what is cell division
Aron Reply
Cell division is the process by which a single cell divides into two or more daughter cells. It is a fundamental process in all living organisms and is essential for growth, development, and reproduction. Cell division can occur through either mitosis or meiosis.
AI-Robot
What is life?
Allison Reply
life is defined as any system capable of performing functions such as eating, metabolizing,excreting,breathing,moving,Growing,reproducing,and responding to external stimuli.
Mohamed
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Source:  OpenStax, 2008-'09 open education cup: high performance computing. OpenStax CNX. Oct 28, 2008 Download for free at http://cnx.org/content/col10594/1.3
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