Performance of the Alex AVX-2 MIMD architecture in learning the NetTalk database

The process of training neural networks on parallel architectures has been used to assess the performance of so many parallel machines. In this paper, we are investigating the implementation of backpropagation (BP) on the Alex AVX-2 coarse-grained MIMD machine. A host-worker parallel implementation is carried out in order to train different networks to learn the NetTalk dictionary. First, a computational model is constructed using a single processor to complete the learning process. Also, a communication model for the host-worker topology is developed in order to compute the communication overhead in the broadcasting/gathering process. Both models are then used to predict the machine performance when p processors are used and a comparison with the actual measured performance of the parallel architecture implementation is carried out. Simulation results show that both models can be used effectively to predict the machine performance for the NetTalk problem. Finally, a comparison between the AVX-2 NetTalk implementation and the performance of other parallel platforms is presented.