Description  Books and References  Schedule and class materials  Projects

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CSC 557/449: Special Topic:

Introduction to High  Performance Computing Course

 

This course  is the first offering of its kind. The class will be taught by Professor Thomas Sterling, the Beowulf cluster inventor and world-renown  HPC researcher. The class interaction will be broadcasted and powered by High-Definition VDO streaming gears over LONI FOUR  Lambda network (40Gb/s). 

 

Main class website: http://www.cct.lsu.edu/csc7600

Preq., CSC 437, 445 or instructor's permission

Times: Tues and Thus  12:00pm-1:50am

Place: Access Grid NH248 Room, Live view

Instructor: Professor Thomas Sterling, tron@cct.lsu.edu

Local Faculty coordinator: Dr. Box Leangsuksun, box@latech.edu

Office: room 237 Nethken Hall, 318-257, 3291

Office Hours: M-W 2-3:50pm or by appointment

Descriptions:

This introductory course in HPC provides a practical treatment of the topics comprising this dynamic field and their interrelationships tied together by the central cross-cutting theme of sustained computational performance. The participating student will learn the concepts, methods, and means of HPC through a series of hands-on examples, exercises, and assignments to manage, apply, and evaluate the use of these greatest of all computers to real world problems. This course is being conveyed in a multi-media environment for maximum student convenience, accessibility, and interest. The course is being taught in high definition digital video via the internet with Access Grid technology combined with on-demand video streaming lecture segments for repetition, enhanced materials, and augmented explanatory discussions.  Topics include but not limited to:

1. Introduction and overview of HPC,
2. Large scale applications and parallel algorithmic methods,
3. Enabling technologies,
4. System single node and parallel architectures and commodity clusters,
5. Performance metrics, monitoring, measurement, and benchmarking, and
6. Programming methods and tools for capacity and capability computing.

 

Class Materials:

• Main Text book: TBA
• MPI programming book or on-line:

1)    http://webct.ncsa.uiuc.edu:8900/public/MPI/

2)    Parallel Programming with MPI by Peter Pacheco Morgan Kaufmann; 1st edition (October 1996) ISBN: 1558603395 (optional).

• Research Articles

Other class activities: research, experiment, term projects.

 

 

Grading Policies:

    Since this class is research (reading) oriented, I think it is more appropriate to evaluate your learning and mastering level of our class objectives into three following categories:

1) Assignments & Homeworks (TBA)

2) Exams (TBA) and Homework (TBA)

3) Attendance (5%)

    Grading scheme:

   

91 and up	A
81- 90	B
71-80	C
below 70	F

 

Schedules:

schedule
Month	Day	Date		Topic
january
	Tu	16		Introduction
	Th	18		Reseources, Environments, & Tools
	Tu	23		Big applications and their properties
	Th	25		Enabling Technologies and characteristics
	Tu	30		Single Node Architecture & Performance
february
	Th	1		Single Node Architecture & Performance
	Tu	6		Parallel Computer Architecture & Performance
	Th	8		Parallel Computer Architecture & Performance
	Tu	13		Commodity Clusters
	Th	15		Commodity Clusters
	Tu	20		Benchmarking
	Th	22		Performance Measurement
	Tu	27		MPI Programming
march
	Th	1		MPI Programming
	Tu	6		Review for Mid-term Exam
	Th	8		Mid-term Exam
	Tu	13		Parallel Algorithms
	Th	15		Parallel Algorithms
	Tu	20		Libraries
	Th	22		Domain Specific Programming Environments
	Tu	27		Visualization
	Th	29		Visualization
april
	Tu	3		Spring Break
	Th	5		Spring Break
	Tu	10		System Software
	Th	12		System Software
	Tu	17		Parallel I/O
	Th	19		Parallel I/O
	Tu	24		Special Topics
	Th	26		Special Topics
may	Tu	1		Beyond and Beyond
	Th	3		Final Exam Review
				Final Exam

 

Suggested term projects:

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