Optimizing irregular computations on SIMD machines: a case study

Author

Conery, John S. ; Lynch, Michael ; Hovland, Tommy

Author_Institution

Dept. of Comput. & Inf. Sci., Oregon Univ., Eugene, OR, USA

fYear

1995

fDate

6-9 Feb 1995

Firstpage

222

Lastpage

230

Abstract

Data-parallel computations with regular structure fixed data size and predictable control patterns can be implemented efficiently on SIMD architectures. However many large applications have irregular structure, either data sets that vary in size as the computation progresses or control structures that select different subsets of the processors at each stage of the computation. In this paper we describe a stochastic biology simulation and some of the methods we used to improve its performance on the MasPar MP-1104. We present a simple model for evaluating the performance of a data parallel application and use the model to improve the performance of the simulator

Keywords

parallel architectures; parallel processing; performance evaluation; MasPar MP-1104; SIMD machines; control structures; data sets; irregular computations optimisation; performance; predictable control patterns; regular structure; stochastic biology simulation; Atmospheric modeling; Biological system modeling; Biology computing; Computational modeling; Computer aided software engineering; Environmental factors; Evolution (biology); Genetic mutations; Size control; Stochastic processes;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Frontiers of Massively Parallel Computation, 1995. Proceedings. Frontiers '95., Fifth Symposium on the

Conference_Location

McLean, VA

Print_ISBN

0-8186-6965-9

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/FMPC.1995.380445

Filename

380445