HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: swamy@cs.ubc.ca (H.V. Sreekantaswamy)
Newsgroups: fj.mail-lists.parallel
Subject: Communication Startup costs on Distributed Memory Machines
Date: 25 Aug 92 19:14:12 GMT
Distribution: fj

I am interested in knowing typical values for communication startup
costs on various distributed memory machines such as CM-5, nCUBE,
Intel IPSC, Delta, Paragon, etc. What I mean by communication startup
cost is the time it takes to begin the actual message transmission
from the time the user program makes the appropriate function call.
This should include all the operating system or runtime system overheads
in initiating the communication in addition to hardware setup time.
I would appreciate if anyone can point to any papers/reports that 
discuss about these overheads or give the values for any system.

If there is sufficient interest, I will post a summary of replies.

Thanks,
--Swamy

------------------------------------------------------------------------
H.V. Sreekantaswamy			E-mail:	swamy@cs.ubc.ca
Dept. of Computer Science		Tel:    (604)822-3731
University of British Columbia			(604)224-4431 (Home)
Vancouver, B.C., Canada V6T 1Z2   			
------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: bminor@afit.af.mil (Bryan M. Minor)
Newsgroups: fj.mail-lists.parallel
Subject: Silicon Graphics Workstations
Date: 31 Aug 92 12:43:48 GMT
Distribution: fj

I have the opportunity to use three different Silicon Graphics machines:

    4D/320, 4D/440, 4D/480

Supposedly the 320 has 2 R3000 processors, the 440 has 4 R4000 processors,
and the 480 has 8 processors.  What I am interested in knowing is how fast
are these machines compared to a Sun SPARC 2 with 32 Mb, and is trying to
program parallel codes on them worthwhile.  Are they MIMD or SIMD Parrallel
machines?  If you are going to program on them, what language is best,
ie. C/C++ or Fortran 90.  I really want to get into parallel programing
and my current research project seems to lend itself to it.  Are these good
machines for getting exposed to parallel programing?  Thanks alot for your
time!
From: heifetz!rphroy!re3sc139h.gmr.com!wjs@uunet.UU.NET
Newsgroups: fj.mail-lists.parallel
Subject: REQ: Info re: third partys for C40 chip
Date: 1 Sep 92 18:13:33 GMT
Distribution: fj

I apologize if this information has been posted recently.

I am looking for a list of third party vendors of the TMS320C40
based processor boards.  I would be particularly interested in
VME based multi-processor configurations.

Any information available on good C, C++, or Fortran compilers
would also be appreciated.


							   Thanks in advance,

							   W. Stuart   wjs@re3sc139h.gmr.com
From: vavasis@cs.cornell.EDU
Newsgroups: fj.mail-lists.parallel
Subject: looking for textbook
Date: 31 Aug 92 17:59:40 GMT
Distribution: fj

I need to select a textbook for a new course this spring at Cornell,
"Parallel Scientific Computing."  We are planning to use some of the
machines here including:

  (1) SIMD: Connection Machine CM-200
  (2) MIMD, tightly coupled: Intel iPSC
  (3) MIMD, loosely coupled: network of IBM RS6000's
  (4) shared memory: Kendall Square KSR-1

I am hoping to cover these architecture paradigms.  I am also hoping
to cover associated programming paradigms, for instance, FORTRAN-90
for the CM-200.

Then I am hoping to cover scientific algorithms for parallel computing
(and specifically for the machines above) including linear algebra,
systems of particles, boundary value problems, and perhaps some global
climate modeling.  In the process we will hit the paradigms for
parallel programming, such as load balancing and minimizing
communication.

I would be interested in suggestions for textbooks that cover this
material, especially from people who have taught a course like this
before.

Thanks,
Steve Vavasis (vavasis@cs.cornell.edu)
From: qyl@cs.strath.ac.uk
Newsgroups: fj.mail-lists.parallel
Subject: Re: paper for distributed scheduling
Date: 31 Aug 92 17:59:25 GMT
Distribution: fj

Here are some papers related to distributed constraint satisfaction 
problems, which are the key problems for distributed scheduling.

Peter Burke and Patrick Prosser,
A Distributed Asynchronous System for Predictive and 
Reactive Scheduling, Department of Computer Science, 
University of Strathclyde, AISL-42-89, p. 57, October 1989

Zeev Collin and Rina Dechter,
A Distributed Solution to the Network Consistency Problem,
Israel Institute of Technology, 1990

E. C. Freuder and M. J. Quinn,
Parallelism in algorithms that take advantage of stable sets of
variables to solve constraint satisfaction problems, 
University of New Hampshire, Durham, New Hampshire., Tech. Rep. 85-21, 
1985

Q. Y. Luo and  J. T. Buchanan,
Distributed Tree Search Algorithms for Distributed 
Constraint Satisfaction Problems,
Department of Computer Science, University of Strathclyde,
KEG-2-91, p. 13, May 1991

Q. Y. Luo, P. G. Hendry, J. T. Buchanan,
A Hybrid Algorithm for Distributed Constraint Satisfaction Problems
The European Workshops on Parallel Computing 92, March 1992, SPAIN, p. 10

Q. Y. Luo, P. G. Hendry, J. T. Buchanan,
A New Algorithm for Dynamic Distributed Constraint Satisfaction Problems
Florida Artificial Intelligence Symposium 92, April 92, USA, p. 5 

Makoto Yokoo et al,
Distributed Constraint Satisfaction for DAI Problem,
The 10th International  Workshop for DAI, p. 20, Oct 1990

  Hope it will help.

  Cheers.

Magnus

Magnus Q. Luo, Department of Computer Science,      _                         
University of Strathclyde, Glasgow G1 1XH, UK      |   _  _  _| |      _ |    
qyl@uk.ac.strath.cs  041-552 4400 Ext 2952         |_T|_||_||_| |__|_||_ |<
From: ewilts@galaxy.gov.bc.ca (Ed Wilts)
Newsgroups: fj.mail-lists.parallel
Subject: C* on MasPar?
Date: 3 Sep 92 17:53:04 GMT
Distribution: fj

I've got a user with C* experience on a Connection Machine.  Given that we have
a DECmpp 12000, does anyone know of any efforts to make C* available on the
MasPar platform?

Thanks,
	.../Ed
-- 

Ed Wilts, BC Systems Corp., 4000 Seymour Place, Victoria, B.C., Canada, V8X 4S8
EWilts@Galaxy.Gov.BC.CA   |   Ed.Wilts@BCSystems.Gov.BC.CA   |   (604) 389-3430
From: barmar@Think.COM
Newsgroups: fj.mail-lists.parallel
Subject: Re: Synchonizing watches
Date: 3 Sep 92 17:53:00 GMT
Distribution: fj

Take a look at the algorithms in the Network Time Protocol, RFC 1305.  Or
if the specific algorithms aren't a good match, the references (there are
about 60 of them) at the end of the document should be useful.

-- 
Barry Margolin
System Manager, Thinking Machines Corp.

barmar@think.com          {uunet,harvard}!think!barmar
From: simon@kikel.Berkeley.EDU (B.Simon@frec.bull.fr)
Newsgroups: fj.mail-lists.parallel
Subject: Parallel device drivers
Date: 26 Aug 92 12:12:03 GMT
Distribution: fj

Hi,

I am looking for any book or publication on parallel
device driver SCSI or others.


Thanks in advance,

Bertrand Simon

B.Simon@frec.bull.fr


__________________________________________________________
From: iane@werple.pub.uu.oz.au (Ian Evans)
Newsgroups: fj.mail-lists.parallel
Subject: Locks without using atomic instructions
Date: 31 Aug 92 12:45:39 GMT
Distribution: fj

I'm not sure whether a) This is the best newsgroup to ask this and b)
whether this is a FAQ but..

Let's say that there is a system (unfortunately there is) where some
person (me) wants to get a few different computers communicating reliably,
and the only available mechanism is reading a shared memory location, or
writing a location, but there is no atomic set & test type instruction.
It is possible, however, to get a unique system-wide process ID.

What's needed is a locking algorithm that is completely bullet-proof, as
the systems are completely asynchronous and have widely different
speeds.  There is, of course, no way to disable access by turning
interrupts off, DMA off etc...

Just thinking about it from cold, I've come up with what looks like
an exceedingly complicated 7-step lock procedure using two memory
locations.  I can't see any obvious holes for 2 processes communicating,
but it definitely breaks for 3.

I would appreciate being pointed in the right direction, as I'm sure
this has been described in half-a-zillion textbooks / PhD's etc...

If this is obvious or a FAQ, please mail me direct:
		Ian Evans - Melbourne Australia
			    iane@werple.pub.uu.oz.au
From: vanscoy@cs.wvu.wvnet.edu (Frances L VanScoy)
Newsgroups: fj.mail-lists.parallel
Subject: parallel course design advice
Date: 25 Aug 92 19:13:57 GMT
Distribution: fj

Next semester I'm scheduled to teach a service course for graduate
students in science and engineering on programming a parallel computing
system.

Does anyone have any advice on topics to include in such a course or
a text book to choose?

Frances Van Scoy
Department of Statistics and Computer Science
West Virginia University
Morgantown, WV  26506-6330
From: cmp2c@uvacs.cs.Virginia.EDU (Carmen Pancerella)
Newsgroups: fj.mail-lists.parallel
Subject: Mesh computers?
Date: 1 Sep 92 12:43:37 GMT
Distribution: fj

If I remember correctly, there was a posted bibliography
on mesh computers and routing on mesh computers that 
appeared here a while ago.

I would appreciate it if someone send me a copy
of this.

Thanks so much!

Carmen Pancerella
cmp2c@virginia.edu
From: zone@ens.ens-lyon.fr (Olivier Zone)
Newsgroups: fj.mail-lists.parallel
Subject: Block tridiagonal inverse
Date: 25 Aug 92 19:13:36 GMT
Distribution: fj

Hello,
I would appreciate any references to obtain the inverse/solution 
for block (tri)diagonal matrix on parallel machines.

Thanks.
e-mail: oz@mema.ucl.ac.be

Olivier
From: steve@hubcap.clemson.edu (Steve Stevenson)
Newsgroups: fj.mail-lists.parallel
Subject: Synchonizing watches
Date: 3 Sep 92 12:33:07 GMT
Distribution: fj

[I saw this on sci.logic. I thought it was a nice problem for this group.
  steve]
>From: dougs@tvnews.tv.tek.com (Doug Stevens)
>Message-ID: <1992Sep1.234452.26917@tvnews.tv.tek.com>

[....]

A and B are two people at two ends of a very slow telephone connection. 
They are both completely cut off from the world except for their connection 
with each other.  In particular, they have no idea what time it is in the 
real world.

There is a delay AB in the transmission of what is being said by
A to B, and a delay BA in the transmission of what is being said
by B to A. The delay AB does not equal the delay BA. The delays, for the
purpose of this problem, are on the order of minutes in each direction.

Both A and B have watches. Before they begin to talk, the watches are not
set to the correct time, nor are they set to the same time.

The problem is to devise a procedure such that A and B can, via their 
telephone connection only, accurately synchronize their watches (to
within a few seconds). The watches do not have to reflect time in the
real world, but must match each other. Both A and B will know the procedure 
before the call begins, and each will know whether he is A or B.

Thanks for any help.
From: chandra@austin.ibm.com (Dr. Chandra Narayanaswami)
Newsgroups: fj.mail-lists.parallel
Subject: KSR machine
Date: 28 Aug 92 12:19:50 GMT
Distribution: fj

Hi,

A few weeks ago there was a lot of discussion about the 
KSR machine.  Has anyone saved those messages?  If so
can he/she email it to me?

Are there any good descriptive reports about the system?

Thanks
- -- 

Chandra
- ---------------------------------------------------------------
IBM here means I Become Myself, i.e. I don't speak for IBM Corp.
From: anik@crhc.uiuc.edu (Sadun Anik)
Newsgroups: fj.mail-lists.parallel
Subject: Re: Synchonizing watches
Date: 3 Sep 92 17:53:30 GMT
Distribution: fj

In article <1992Sep3.123226.14205@hubcap.clemson.edu> steve@hubcap.clemson.edu ("Steve" Stevenson) writes:
   [I saw this on sci.logic. I thought it was a nice problem for this group.
     steve]
   >From: dougs@tvnews.tv.tek.com (Doug Stevens)
   >Message-ID: <1992Sep1.234452.26917@tvnews.tv.tek.com>

   [....]

   A and B are two people at two ends of a very slow telephone connection. 
   They are both completely cut off from the world except for their connection 
   with each other.  In particular, they have no idea what time it is in the 
   real world.

   There is a delay AB in the transmission of what is being said by
   A to B, and a delay BA in the transmission of what is being said
   by B to A. The delay AB does not equal the delay BA. The delays, for the
   purpose of this problem, are on the order of minutes in each direction.

   Both A and B have watches. Before they begin to talk, the watches are not
   set to the correct time, nor are they set to the same time.

   The problem is to devise a procedure such that A and B can, via their 
   telephone connection only, accurately synchronize their watches (to
   within a few seconds). The watches do not have to reflect time in the
   real world, but must match each other. Both A and B will know the procedure 
   before the call begins, and each will know whether he is A or B.

   Thanks for any help.
----------------

OK I'll bite. It is trivial for A and B to figure out AB+BA. It is
also trivial for them to synchronize their watches assuming AB=BA (or
any preset assumtion on AB/BA). At this point their watches are
actually synchronized. You can not refute this with any communication
between A and B using this communication channel. My wild guess :) and
please tell me if this is wrong.

[I don't think that your assumptions are safe. Steve]


If you are using a third person "C" to check if their watches are
actually synchronized using delays AC,CA,BC and CB, then the system you
are solving is perturbed so the previous solution doesn't need to be
valid. But this is irrelevant because this is not the system  in the
problem. The solution is not also valid if you have another means of
communication between A and B. 

--
Sadun Anik, U of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Center for Reliable and High-performance Computing
e-mail: anik@crhc.uiuc.edu
From: masticol@cadenza.rutgers.edu (Steve Masticola)
Newsgroups: fj.mail-lists.parallel
Subject: Re: Synchonizing watches
Date: 4 Sep 92 12:32:17 GMT
Distribution: fj

leo@nas.nasa.gov (Leo Dagum) writes:

  4) A times the first call back, and now knows (AB + BA), when he gets
     the second call back, he now knows BA as well (and therefore AB).

I don't see how A will know BA from the second call... Call d the time
difference between when b makes the first call and the second call. A
receives the second call at time T + AB + BA + d. A knows AB + BA, T,
and d. But A would have to know AB or BA independently to separate the
two.

  Leo Dagum
  NASA Ames Reseach Center

- Steve Masticola (masticol@cs.rutgers.edu)
From: steve (Steve Stevenson)
Newsgroups: fj.mail-lists.parallel
Subject: (none)
Date: 3 Sep 92 17:53:21 GMT
Distribution: fj


	From dangel%informatik.uni-kl.de@uklirb.informatik.uni-kl.de Thu Aug 27 08:36:20 1992
	Received: from [131.246.136.50] by hubcap.clemson.edu; Thu, 27 Aug 92 08:36:04 -0400 
	Received: from uklirb.informatik.uni-kl.de by stepsun.uni-kl.de id ab25328;
	          27 Aug 92 14:29 MET DST
	Received: from sokrates.informatik.uni-kl.de by uklirb.informatik.uni-kl.de
	          id aa26976; 27 Aug 92 14:33 MET DST
	Date:     Thu, 27 Aug 92 14:33:04 MET DST
	From: Andreas Dangel (DA Milojicic) <dangel@informatik.uni-kl.de>
	To: steve@hubcap.clemson.edu
	Cc: dangel@informatik.uni-kl.de
	Subject:  problems with posting in comp.parallel
	Message-Id:  <9208271433.aa27706@sokrates.informatik.uni-kl.de>
	
	Hi,
	
	I received the following message (from the postmaster), that there are some
	problems with my article posted in comp.parallel. He said I should send it to
	the moderator ...
	Thanks in advance for posting it...
		Andreas
	
	Here is his mail, including my article:
	
		    Your message could not be delivered to
		'@mail.germany.eu.net:comp-parallel@unido.uucp (host: mail.germany.eu.net) (queue: unido)' for the following
		reason:  ' <@mail.germany.eu.net:comp-parallel@unido.uucp>... User unknown'
		
		
		    Your message follows:
		
		Received: from posthorn.informatik.uni-kl.de by uklirb.informatik.uni-kl.de
		          id aa12895; 26 Aug 92 15:14 MET DST
		Newsgroups: comp.parallel
Path: bloch!dangel
		From: "Andreas Dangel (DA Milojicic" <dangel@sokrates.informatik.uni-kl.de>
		MMDF-Warning:  Parse error in original version of preceding line at posthorn.informatik.uni-kl.de
		Subject: looking for distributed applications...
		Message-ID: <dangel.714834792@bloch>
		Sender: News system account <news@posthorn.informatik.uni-kl.de>
		Nntp-Posting-Host: bloch.informatik.uni-kl.de
		Organization: University of Kaiserslautern, Germany
		Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1992 13:13:12 GMT
		
	
	Hi there,
	
	we investigate the behaviour of distributed unix or mach applications.
	If you know some places (ftp-servers...) where we can get them or if you have
	some (simple) distributed c applications (number-crunching, simulations etc.),
	please let us know.
	We only need them for measurements and investigation of the behaviour in terms
	of suitability for task migration.
	
	Thanks in advance for any help.
	
	Andreas Dangel , Universitaet Kaiserslautern, germany
	Internet: dangel@informatik.uni-kl.de
From: jet@nas.nasa.gov (J. Eric Townsend)
Newsgroups: fj.mail-lists.parallel
Subject: mimd-based make(1)?
Date: 31 Aug 92 12:42:31 GMT
Distribution: fj

I remember a discussion of parallel makes a while back, but I didn't
save anything from it (silly me :-).

I'm looking for any code or work that's been done with MIMD-based make
programs.  The makes that I've found source for so far (ucb, gnu)
assume that the OS handles scheduling and load balancing and simply
fork off a number of concurrent compiles.

I'd like to be able to submit a make to a mimd-dm machine, w/o OS
scheduling, however.  I'm interested in writing the code if it doesn't
exist already, so references to papers, tr's and the like are
acceptible.

Thanks...


--
             J. Eric Townsend --  jet@nas.nasa.gov -- 415.604.4311
           '91 CB750, soon to be replaced by a '92 R100R, DoD# 0378
      "Heads.  Heads.  Heads.  Heads.  Heads.  Heads." -- R & G Are Dead
From: clump@asparagus.cs.mcgill.ca
Newsgroups: fj.mail-lists.parallel
Subject: time problem
Date: 3 Sep 92 17:53:16 GMT
Distribution: fj

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
- A Solution -
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Let the local time of A be tA, and the local time of B be tB.
Further, let tAB be the lag between messages going from A to B,
and let tBA be the symmetric value. Since both time pieces
are presumable ticking at the same rate, let tB = tA + C for some
constant C. If we can determine C, then they can synchronize their
watches.

1) A asks B the time. As s/he does, s/he notes how long it
   takes to hear the response from B. If B answers promptly, 
   A will now know 3 things:
      (tA)                 (local time)
      (tAB + tBA)          (total delay)
      (tA + C + tAB)       (time told to A by B)

2) A subtracts the last value from the first two:
      (tA) + (tAB + tBA) - (tA + C + tAB) = (tBA - C)

3) B now asks A the time. A hears the request at time
   tA', notes this time and responds. B now knows:
      (tA' + tBA)          (time told to B by A)

4) B tells A the value of (tA' + tBA). A can now calculate:
      (tA') + (tBA - C) - (tA' + tBA) = -C

5) A adds -C to his/her watch. Now both watches are in synch.

Of course this algorithm can only be as accurate as the
reaction time of the participants. It also assumes
that tAB and tBA are constant.



Clark Verbrugge
clump@binkley.cs.mcgill.ca
From: harvard!bu-pub.bu.edu!hari@gatech.edu
Newsgroups: fj.mail-lists.parallel
Subject: Re: need help in C* (for Connection Machine)
Date: 31 Aug 92 12:43:15 GMT
Distribution: fj

if your systeme has C* then there must be examples 
programs in the system too. Also know about Prism 
which is a debugger to use. Using prism and the examples
program you can give yourself an introduction

i do not not know if this helps but please let me know
your questions. I will try if i can

hari
From: clsi!!kevin@uunet.UU.NET (Kevin Cameron)
Newsgroups: fj.mail-lists.parallel
Subject: Re: Constructing Control Flow Graph
Date: 31 Aug 92 12:44:38 GMT
Distribution: fj

You could get a copy of the GNU C compiler source - try the gnu news groups:

gnu.gcc.announce
gnu.gcc.help

- it'll save you a lot of effort if you're planning on doing your own code
generation.

Kev.
-- 
Kevin Cameron          CLSI, Suite 100, 5457 Twin Knolls Rd., MD 21045, USA
kevin@clsi.com         Tel: (USA) (410) 992 5700 (- 5709) X229
uunet!clsi.com!kevin   Fax:       (410) 992 3536
----------------------------------------------------------- Reality Is virtual
From: dangel@sokrates.informatik.uni-kl.de
Newsgroups: fj.mail-lists.parallel
Subject: looking for distributed applications...
Date: 26 Aug 92 19:33:17 GMT
Distribution: fj

we investigate the behaviour of distributed unix or mach applications.
If you know some places (ftp-servers...) where we can get them or if you have
some (simple) distributed applications (number-crunching, simulations etc.),
please let us know.
We only need them for measurements and investigation of the behaviour in terms
of suitability for task migration.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Andreas Dangel , Universitaet Kaiserslautern, germany
Internet: dangel@informatik.uni-kl.de
From: anik@crhc.uiuc.edu (Sadun Anik)
Newsgroups: fj.mail-lists.parallel
Subject: Re: Constructing Control Flow Graph
Date: 25 Aug 92 19:14:12 GMT
Distribution: fj

In article <1992Aug25.130859.2832@hubcap.clemson.edu> lka@lems1alems.brown.edu (Lalit K. Agarwal) writes:

   I'm looking for any published material on actual
   implementation methods & data-structures for constructing 
   control-flow & dependence graphs of a c-program. All
   responses will be greatly appreciated.

I would strongly recommend "The Red Dragon", the must have book for
anybody interested in detailed compiler techniques. It covers
everything from lexical analysis and parsing to code generation. It
does provide algortihms for control-flow, data-flow analysis and many
related optimizations.  The real name and other info follows.

Compilers, principles, techniques, and tools
by
Alfred V. Aho, Ravi Sethi, Jeffrey D. Ullman
ISBN 0-201-10088-6

Published by Addison-Wesley.

The book cover illustrates a compiler writer wearing an armor of
compiler tools and the red dragon of "complexity of compiler design".
In our compiler project here, all (well almost all) the flow based
algorihtms from this book has been implemented with success. 

--
Sadun Anik, U of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Center for Reliable and High-performance Computing
e-mail: anik@crhc.uiuc.edu
From: jpmott%sunspot.nosc.mil@nosc.mil (Jon Mott)
Newsgroups: fj.mail-lists.parallel
Subject: Request: Feedback from STRAND users
Date: 3 Sep 92 12:33:33 GMT
Distribution: fj

Hello - 

	I would appreciate hearing comments from users of the
STRAND88 product, by Strand Software Technologies. Informal
impressions about the product are all that I am looking for
at this time. I am especially interested in hearing about 
how easy it is to configure, manage and merge with existing
code.

	For those who don't know, STRAND is a language specifically
for parallel and distributed applications, on multiple processors,
of various types across a network, etc.

Thanks,
Jon Mott
Universal Computing, San Diego, CA
jpmott@sunspot.nosc.mil
(or universal!jon@ucsd.edu)
From: azhao@cs.arizona.edu (Qiang Alex Zhao)
Newsgroups: fj.mail-lists.parallel
Subject: Q: parallel graphics algorithms
Date: 31 Aug 92 12:42:03 GMT
Distribution: fj

Sorry if this is a repost (I'm not sure).

Could anybody point to me where I can find some graphics algorithms
that can be easily parallellized, or a bibliography on parallel
graphics algorithms? Thanks a lot.

-- 
= Qiang Alex Zhao		   Computer Science Department
  azhao@cs.arizona.edu             University of Arizona
  (602) 621-1815                   Tucson, AZ 85721