HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: mturner@aris.ss.uci.edu (Matthew Turner)
Subject: Re: Basic Question
Organization: University of California, Irvine
Date: 18 Aug 92 00:23:40 GMT


After reading the post entitled Basic Question, I found that I had a question of my own.  Is there a place where people trying to build experimental multi-processor systems out of off-the-shelf parts get together to compare notes?  I have read through a lot of articles in this group, and get the impression that it is more concerned with theory and high-end systems than with "homebrew" systems.

Thanks for any info...

-Matthion








===========================================================================
                        (__)        |   Matthion Augustus Douglas Turner
                ^^      (oo)        |
            ^^^^ /-------\/         |  Department of Biophysical Alchemy
         ^^^^^  / |     ||          |  College of Arcane Arts (A.A.)
       ^^^^^   *  ||----||          |  University of California, Irvine
    ^^^^^^^^  ====^^====^^====      |              
^^^^^^^^^^^^^/ ^^^^                 |       mturner@aris.ss.uci.edu
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^          |           
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ |
    Cow Hanging Eight at Malibu     |    Analytical Engines Incorporated
============================================================================

Newsgroups: comp.parallel
From: eugene@nas.nasa.gov (Eugene N. Miya)
Subject: Re: Asking for demo program for PVM
Organization: NAS, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 92 14:16:14 -0700

PVM comes with four or five test/demo programs (if you got it from netlib
properly).



Newsgroups: comp.parallel
From: deluca@bu-pub.bu.edu (Cecelia Deluca)
Subject: C* on the CM2 and CM5
Followup-To: C* on the CM2 and CM5
Organization: Boston University
Date: 20 Aug 92 15:37:36 GMT


According to our local TMC rep, C* code written for the CM2 should compile
and otherwise behave nicely on the CM5, with  the important exception that the
CM5 does not support any Parallel Instruction Set (PARIS) calls whatsoever.
(That means no complex type - yuck) However, CM operarators such as scan, reduce, etc. will still be supported on the new machine.  If you're interested, there's a brief description of C* on the CM5 in the "CM5 Technical Summary"
booklet provided by TMC.

Newsgroups: comp.parallel
From: rustomji@sol.cs.wmich.edu (Storm Rider)
Subject: HETEROGENEOUS COMPUTING
Keywords: Heterogenous Computing, Parallel Computing
Organization: Western Michigan Univ. Comp. Sci. Dept.
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1992 18:39:32 GMT

[this is getting to be a true FAQ---has someone kept track of the
recent PVM, etc stuff? -- Steve].

Hi,

I am about to launch myself on a project in building a Heterogeneous
Parallel Computing System, using TCP/IP/UDP Protocols. If anyone
can provide any information as to where I can get information regarding
Heterogeneous environments for UNIX based systems, it will be greatly
appreciated. (e.g. ftp sites, journals, articles, papers, documentation)


Thank you.

--
==================================================================
Eric  Rustomji         
Department of Computer Science
Western Michigan University
Newsgroups: comp.parallel
From: rminnich@super.super.org (Ronald G Minnich)
Subject: Re: PVM: thoughts on data-passing routines
Apparently-To: uunet!comp-parallel
Organization: Supercomputing Research Center (Bowie, MD)
Date: Thu, 13 Aug 1992 20:02:16 GMT

In article <1992Aug11.121234.28784@hubcap.clemson.edu> jek@cs.duke.edu (James E. Kittock) writes:
>
>This summer, I have been working with PVM on a project to parallelize
>codes that simulate convection.  The parallelization is being done
>through domain decomposition, i.e. each of N subprocesses works on
>1/Nth of the original domain.
I am curious: when you partition, are the partitions of the array 
in contiguous chunks, or if they are interleaved, are the chunks
reasonably large? (say a multiple of page size). 

If each process's 1/Nth of the array is in a contiguous chunk,
then it seems to me you could use a DSM. 
When a process is scheduled, it uses its process number 
to compute a pointer to its chunk of work and does the computation. 
That is basically what I have done here on the ELC farm for 
several applications. Then you are using PVM for scheduling and
the DSM for sharing data.

Even supposing they aren't contiguous, or they aren't aligned
on nice boundaries, if you are using a DSM then each 
process can do assignment statements from the global array to the small
local copy. The programming effort is easy, at least for the applications
I have tried. 

the put_automatically thing you propose looks difficult. 
I don't want to write it either :-)

ron
-- 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
satisfaction: the feeling you get when you        | rminnich@super.org
run newfs on a DOS disk so you can install 386BSD.| (301)-805-7451
Now if only I could do this to AIX on the RS/6k ...|

Newsgroups: comp.parallel
From: cpr4k@holmes.acc.Virginia.EDU (Christian P. Roberts)
Subject: Re: Liver (sic) loops benchmarks wanted
Reply-To: cpr4k@holmes.acc.Virginia.EDU (Christian P. Roberts)
Organization: Academic Computing Center - U.Va.
Distribution: usa
Date: Fri, 14 Aug 1992 19:59:38 GMT

In article <1992Aug14.183014.26627@hubcap.clemson.edu>,
JSALAS@vmtecqro.qro.itesm.mx (Joaquin SALAS RODRIGUEZ) writes:
|>     Does someone of you where could I get the liver (sic) loops
benchmarks? Any infor
|> mation would be apreciated.

Available from netlib@ornl.gov with the message

send livermore from benchmark              <-- double precision
or
send livermores from benchmark             <-- single precision
or
send livermorec from benchmark             <-- C version

--

Chris Roberts                     Academic Computing Center
cpr4k@virginia.edu                University of Virginia           
(804) 982-4693                    Charlottesville, Virginia 22903

Xref: sparky comp.parallel:1945 sci.math.num-analysis:2497
From: rdd@ukc.ac.uk (Rudnei Dias da Cunha)
Newsgroups: comp.parallel,sci.math.num-analysis
Subject: Timing an application program under PVM
Date: 20 Aug 92 14:41:22 GMT
Organization: Computing Lab, University of Kent at Canterbury, UK.


Dear colleagues,

I wonder if somebody who uses PVM could help me. I am having trouble
measuring the time taken by some application programs written in FORTRAN 77
and run on a network of SUN4s. 

Apparently the execution time returned by the function ``dtime'' is that of 
the application program only and is not including the time taken by the 
daemons to actually transfer the data. Any suggestions? Shall I use a
similar approach to that in the program ``timing.c'' that comes with PVM,
which uses the ``gettimeofday'' routine?

Thanks in advance!
--
                                    Rudnei Dias da Cunha
                                        rdd@ukc.ac.uk
                       Computing Lab, University of Kent at Canterbury
                          Canterbury, Kent  CT2 7NF, United Kingdom
Newsgroups: comp.parallel
From: cmcl2!vlsi3.ultra.nyu.edu!freudent@uunet.UU.NET (Eric Freudenthal)
Subject: Re: Is the overhead of spin lock acquisition always significant?
Cc: freudent@lab.gottlieb@lab.edler@LAB.ULTRA.NYU.EDU
Organization: /a/users/freudent/.organization
Date: Wed, 19 Aug 1992 00:33:59 GMT

Ian,

In article <1992Aug18.111938.19628@hubcap.clemson.edu> Ian Heavens <ian@spider.co.uk> writes:

   Newsgroups: comp.parallel
From: desprez@schnaps.ens-lyon.fr (Frederic Desprez)
Subject: T9000 machines projects?
Apparently-To: comp-parallel@uunet.uu.net
Reply-To: desprez@schnaps.ens-lyon.fr (Frederic Desprez)
Organization: Ecole Normale Superieure de Lyon, France
Date: Fri, 14 Aug 1992 07:47:03 GMT




	Hi,

	I'm looking for informations about projects of parallel 
	machines using T9000 processors and C104 routing chip.

	I only have some informations about Parsytec's Giga Cube.

	Thanks in advance.

	Frederic

Newsgroups: comp.parallel
From: ojuarez@mtecv2.mty.itesm.mx (Octavio Juarez Espinosa)
Subject: About Connection Machine
Summary: Info about CM
Keywords: Information CM
Organization: I.T.E.S.M. Campus Monterrey
Date: 14 Aug 92 17:04:46 GMT





Hi,

I'll appreciate if you send me information about Conection machine 5.

I am very interested in to do a comparison between SUN network  (high
speed networks) and CM/5.

The question is academic.
Thanks in advance.

Sincerely,

Octavio Juarez Espinosa
ojuarez@mtecv2.mty.itesm.mx

-- 
Octavio Juarez Espinosa
Gabriel Valerio 1134 
Saltillo, Coahuila    CP 25000
Mexico  email ojuarez@mtecv2.mty.itesm.mx

Newsgroups: comp.parallel
From: bernardl@SC.Stanford.EDU (Bernard Lee)
Subject:  clarifications on iPSC/DASH/SGI library 
Keywords:  clarifications, iPSC/DASH/SGI library
Organization: CS Dept, Stanford University, CA 94305, USA
Date: Thu, 13 Aug 92 09:17:42 GMT

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Clarifications about the status of the iPSC  message-passing  li-
brary on the DASH/SGI machines.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

(1)  We have successfully integrated FORTNET to the iPSC library,
but that part is NOT ready to be shipped yet.  An early announce-
ment was made as part of good research etiquette  so  that  other
researchers  can  plan  ahead.  The matter is in the hands of the
British researchers; the Stanford team is only supporting the in-
terface.   However,  Dr.  Robert  Allan at the SERC Daresbury Lab
(rja@cxa.dl.ac.uk) will still be glad to hear  from  you  if  you
just  want to send in an early registration of your interest.  My
apologies for the confusions in the earlier posting!

(2)  Just to follow Ms. Manner's research guidelines, perhaps  we
should  give some indications on the direction that we are taking
for the next major release.  We are planning to upgrade  the  li-
brary  to  socket-based  I/O, so that it will eventually run on a
network of 340VGX or 380VGX and simultaneously upgrade  the  per-
formance  on  DASH.   The entire idea is to compare the hardware-
driven performance on DASH to the software-driven performance  on
a  cluster of 340VGX under the same protocol.  The spin-off bene-
fit to the CS community is a socket-based iPSC library  that,  in
theory,  should  run  on  any  cluster  of  SGI's.   Since  there
shouldn't be too much architecture-dependent code in the library,
one  can  reasonably  expect  to  port the code to other types of
workstation clusters, although our group will not have  the  man-
power  to  support other architectures.  Anyone who is interested
in supporting other architectures should feel  free  to  send  me
mail  so that I can send you early versions of our "scratch" code
(and put everything under the same release).

(3)  We also welcome users to make "do-able" suggestions for  the
library, such as that of expanding the library to OSF/860.

Newsgroups: comp.parallel
From: jsmith@king.mcs.drexel.edu (Justin Smith)
Subject: Re: C* on the CM2 and CM5
Apparently-To: uunet!comp-parallel
Organization: Drexel University
Distribution: usa
Date: 	Tue, 18 Aug 1992 15:21:01 -0400

In article <l8veh7INNbcs@utkcs2.cs.utk.edu> minser@cs.utk.edu (Karen Minser) writes:
>
>Could anyone tell me if the C* used on the CM2 is the same or similar to the C*
>to be used on the CM5?

I'm also interested in the answer to this --- could you post it?
-- 
Justin R. Smith
Department of Mathematics and Computer Science
Drexel University
Philadelphia, PA 19104                    (215) 895-1847

Newsgroups: comp.parallel
From: noh@cs.umd.edu (Sam Hyuk Noh)
Subject: code for CM-2
Organization: U of Maryland, Dept. of Computer Science, Coll. Pk., MD 20742
Distribution: na
Date: 14 Aug 92 18:19:31 GMT


Have you developed programs that has
a characteristic such
that the number of processors active
during it execution changes?
For example, in the Gaussian elimination algorithm
the number of active processors 
tend to decrease as the execution progresses.

Are these program written in C*, *Lisp, or CM-Fortran of
the Connection Machine?

Then would you be kind enough to share this
code with me?

I would greatly appreciate it if you could
send me this kind of code.

Thanks in advance.

-- sam noh

Newsgroups: comp.parallel
From: lycmit@x1sun6.ccl.itri.org.tw (Yin-Chih Lin)
Subject: Asking for demo program for PVM
To: comp-parallel@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU
Organization: Clemson University
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 92 21:36:23 CST

Greetings:

I had installed the PVM (Parallel Virtual Machine) 2.4 on my SPARCstation
clusters. However, I have no good sense to write the parallel programs
for PVM in the beginning. This will prohibit me to make the impression
or convince of my colleagues to know the computing power of the
connected workstations.

So I solicit, if someone happens to write the programs (such as
scientific computations, graphic animations, data visualization
or anything else) which can demonstrate the PVM power when compared
with the single one computer will be so kind to drop me a note
about how to start. It will be highly appreciated if someone knows
any PD shareware for PVM can be obtained.

Any direction will be welcomed.

Thanks,

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Yin-Chih Lin                   Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI)
Design Eng.                    Computer & Communication Research Labs.  (CCL)
lycmit@x1sun6.ccl.itri.org.tw  Microcomputer System Department X100
Tel: 886-35-917331             14 Bldg, 195 Chung Hsing Rd., Section 4
Fax: 886-35-917503             Chutung, Hsinchu 31015
                               Taiwan, R.O.C. 
Disclaimer: I only speak for myself.

Newsgroups: comp.parallel
From: Damon <dhd@exnet.co.uk>
Subject: Re: Basic Question
Apparently-To: comp-parallel@uunet.uu.net
Organization: ExNet Systems Ltd Public Access News, London, UK
Date: Mon, 17 Aug 1992 10:05:54 GMT

In article <1992Aug14.121114.3814@hubcap.clemson.edu> hacksaw@cellar.org (Hacksaw) writes:
>   I apologize if this message is off-topic or idiotic, but... I was talking 
>to a friend who mentioned something about parallel computing. The idea that 
>more than one processor could be hooked together in one system and achieve 
>"super-speed". At work, he used a system(I forget the name) that had 
>4-parallel 386/25Mhz processors. It handled "animation" on a CAD program 
>called Jack with no trouble at all. I'm talking high-res images getting 
>flipped back and forth in no time. If this is what 4 386 processors can 
>achieve, then I'll be satisfied with what 2 286 processors can do.
> 
>   I'm currently running a 286/12 under MS-DOS. Obviously, I'm ready to 
>upgrade. I can pick up another 286 motherboard for under $100. Or would I 
>just need the 286 chip itself? Anyway... how would I go about hooking these 
>things together to achieve parallelism? What kind of software would support 
>it? MS-DOS seems to choke on even the itty-bittiest section of RAM above 
>640K; I don't know what makes me think it could handle another processor.
> 
>   Basically... Is parallel computing something only for the highest end 
>machines, or could it be achieved on a measly 286? Any comments would be 
>greatly appreiated. 

No, parallelism will soon be for the masses!  Technology is working its
way down from supercomputers through workstations to (even B^>) the x86
range.  That's not to say that microprocessors haven't been borrowing
supercomputing parallelism tricks like pipelining for years anyway...
Apparently the Intel 586 will have some direct hardware support for
multiprocessing in the easiest-to-understand form (shared memory).  And
the Sequent machines have been using 386/486 for years...

The main problem with chips not designed for multiprocessing (IMHO) is
that they don't believe the `no CPU is an island' philosophy, and so
are not particularly well suited to talking to other CPUs.  But there's
no reason in principle why you shouldn't use two or more 286s, none at
all.  Indeed, I have this secret wish to build a parallel m/c out of
Z80s...  The main problem is the size of the virtual memory space if
multiple processors are going to have to share it.  This is somewhat
more accute for the Z80 than the 286. B^>

Damon
-- 
Damon Hart-Davis | Tel/Fax: +44 81 755 0077 |1.22|| ALL MAIL FREE.
Internet: dhd@exnet.co.uk | Also: Damon@ed.ac.uk || US hotrod motor groups.
--------------------------+----------------------++ >12 mail&news polls / day.
Public access UNIX (Suns), news and mail for #5 per month.  FIRST MONTH FREE.

Newsgroups: comp.parallel
From: Ian Heavens <ian@spider.co.uk>
Subject: Is the overhead of spin lock acquisition always significant?
Apparently-To: comp-parallel@uunet.uu.net
Organization: Spider Systems Limited, Edinburgh, UK
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 1992 10:47:12 GMT

I'd like to question one of the sacred cows of spin-lock based shared 
memory multiprocessing: that the number of spin locks acquired should be 
minimised, because the overhead in lock acquisition is significant.

I agree that contention is always significant, and that there are good
other reasons for not having lots of locks (clarity and deadlock
avoidance).  Also, in some applications, the overhead of lock
acquisition may be significant, where the critical sections are
very short and are executed very frequently.

In our application, a TCP/IP protocol stack, the difference between
acquiring 5 and 10 locks on a typical input or output path seems to me
to be insignificant compared to the protocol processing, assuming no
contention for those locks.  

This issue becomes important because multiple-reader/single-writer
locks are much more convenient to use, and reduce contention, at
a cost of increasing the overhead (three times that of a mutex lock?).

Are their cache consistency or other reasons to inflate the overhead
of testing and setting a memory location?  What have I missed?

Can someone suggest a rough equivalent for a spin lock acquisition in
terms of (some arbitrary mix of) instructions execution, where both 
instruction and data fetch are cache hits?

thanks


ian

---
Ian Heavens				ian@spider.co.uk                 
Spider Software
Spider Park, Stanwell Street		
Edinburgh, EH6 5NG, Scotland		+44 31 555 5166 (Ext 4347)
--



Newsgroups: comp.parallel
From: minser@cs.utk.edu (Karen Minser)
Subject: C* on the CM2 and CM5
Organization: University of Tennessee, Knoxville - CS Department
Distribution: usa
Date: 17 Aug 92 14:39:35 GMT


Could anyone tell me if the C* used on the CM2 is the same or similar to the C*
to be used on the CM5?

Please just e-mail the answer to me.

Thanks,
Karen Minser (minser@cs.utk.edu)



Newsgroups: comp.parallel
From: JSALAS@vmtecqro.qro.itesm.mx
Subject: Looking for IBM 9000 info
Organization: Instituto Tecnologico de Monterrey, Campus Queretaro
Date: 20 Aug 92 23:46:53 GMT


Hi everybody,
      Someone of you have the following information about IBM 9000:
   a) Architecture & price  & perfomance
   b) Software provided by IBM
   c) Special characteristics of the product.
   Thanks for your opinions,
                            Joaquin
jsalas at vmtecqro.qro.itesm.mx

Newsgroups: comp.parallel
From: gmap19@gmd.de (Horst Schwichtenberg)
Subject: virtual shared memory on workstation cluster
Apparently-To: comp-parallel@mail.Germany.EU.Net
Keywords: virtual shared memory, cluster, pvm express
Organization: GMD, Sankt Augustin, Germany
Date: Wed, 19 Aug 1992 16:13:57 GMT

We are looking for  shared memory systems to run it on a 
cluster of workstations (RS6000, Sun's) or  atop of 
pvm or Express. Are there any pd-versions. Please let us 
know.
H. Schwichtenberg, GMD, Institut I1.T
Schwichtenberg@gmd.de

Newsgroups: comp.parallel
From: csds@alpha.ru.ac.za (David Sewry)
Subject: Formal Specifications in CCS
Apparently-To: uunet.uu.net!comp-parallel
Keywords: CCS
Organization: Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa
Date: Wed, 12 Aug 1992 08:08:16 GMT


Hello

I am using Milner's CCS to specify the Linda programming model.
(This work forms part of a larger project which aims to construct
a parallel debugger.)

I am keen to learn of any efforts in the use of CCS as a specification
tool, or its use in the specification of such parallel paradigms.

David Sewry
Internet: csds@alpha.ru.ac.za

Newsgroups: comp.parallel
From: ktl@wag.caltech.edu (Kian-Tat Lim)
Subject: Cubic grid problem
Apparently-To: comp-parallel@ucsd.edu
Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1992 21:39:12 GMT

	I need a way to partition a physical three-dimensional space across a
mesh of nodes such that each node has as close to a cubic subdivision as
possible.  For example, x=53, y=26, z=44 distributed across 32 nodes should
give me 32 subdivisions of size x=13.25, y=13, z=11.  The exgrid* functions
in the Express software environment on the Intel Delta (our hardware target)
would split this (I think) as x=6.625, y=26, z=11, which is not acceptable for
the algorithm I need to use.

	If someone has come up with an efficient way of doing this or has a
reference, please let me know.

-- 
Kian-Tat Lim (ktl@wag.caltech.edu, KTL @ CITCHEM.BITNET, GEnie: K.LIM1)
Ex-System Manager, Materials & Molecular Simulation Center, Caltech
Henry Spencer left-of-|, Steve Lamont p*, Margaret "*" Puckette signature fan

Newsgroups: comp.parallel
From: vu0208@bingsuns.cc.binghamton.edu (!)
Subject: Re: Basic Question
Apparently-To: uunet!comp-parallel
Organization: State University of New York at Binghamton
Date: Wed, 19 Aug 1992 18:28:01 GMT

In article <1992Aug18.111922.19431@hubcap.clemson.edu> mturner@aris.ss.uci.edu (Matthew Turner) writes:
>
>After reading the post entitled Basic Question, I found that I had a question
>of my own.  Is there a place where people trying to build experimental
>multi-processor systems out of off-the-shelf parts get together to compare
>notes?

See the Cosmic Cube machine built at Caltech by Chuck Seitz group.
Made out of i286 or i386 processors.


Newsgroups: comp.parallel
From: JSALAS@vmtecqro.qro.itesm.mx (Joaquin SALAS RODRIGUEZ)
Subject: Liver (sic) loops benchmarks wanted
Organization: Instituto Tecnologico de Monterrey, Campus Queretaro
Date: 14 Aug 92 17:42:29 GMT


Hi,
    Does someone of you where could I get the liver (sic) loops benchmarks? Any infor
mation would be apreciated.
                     Thanks.
                          Joaquin SALAS
 
jsalas@vmtecqro
 

Newsgroups: comp.parallel