CSE 260 Homework #1
Due Tuesday 10/04/05 in class

Worth 10 points

  1. Tell me about yourself. At what point are you in your graduate studies? What are your research interests? What do you expect to get out of the course? Do you have a research project in mind? Let me know if you are looking for a partner for the research project.

  2. Browse the web and read about an application that has previously been implemented on a parallel computer, or a software tool that is used to develop parallel applications. Make a web page that describes the application, prior results with parallel computation, and how the results are used.

    For applications, report available information that addresses the following points.

    1. What is the application and its significance?
    2. What equations are being solved, and what are the algorithms used to solve them?
    3. What hardware does the application run on, and what levels of parallelism are employed typically?
      1. How well does the application scale?
      2. What are the bottlenecks and how did the developers attempt to deal with them?
      3. Are there any outstanding performance bottlenecks that the code developers plan to address in the future?
    4. What programming tools, libraries, or compilers were used?
    5. Does the application produce large amounts of data? If so, are the management, access, and manipulation of the data considered a technical challenge?
    6. Is the application still in use? Are there applications that solve the same problem? Is there any competition? Is the software a commercial product?

    For development tools, your report should address the following points.

    1. What is the tool and its significance?
    2. What problem does it solve, and what is the theory of operation?
    3. What hardware does the application run on, and what levels of parallelism are employed typically?
      1. How well does the tool scale, and if relevant the applications it is used to develop?
      2. What are the bottlenecks and how did the developers attempt to deal with them?
      3. Are there any outstanding performance bottlenecks that the code developers plan to address in the future?
    4. How widespread is the use of the tool?
    5. Does the tool manage large amounts of data?
    6. Is the tool still in use? Are there alternatives that solve the same problem? Is the tool a commercial product?

    Submitting your assignment

    Turn in hard copy in class, but also mail me the URL.

    I am going to post your turnin on a publicly available web site, so please keep this in mind when writing your assignment

    Suggestions for places to look

    Here are some specific applications that I am familiar with

    Here are some tools that I am familiar with

    Here are some general web sites that cover many applications and tools