Topics in Parallel and Distributed Computing: Enhancing the Undergraduate Curriculum: Performance, Concurrency, and Programming on Modern Platforms

Description

This book introduces beginning undergraduate students of computing and computational disciplines to modern parallel and distributed programming languages and environments, including map-reduce, general-purpose graphics processing units (GPUs), and graphical user interfaces (GUI) for mobile applications. The book also guides instructors via selected essays on what and how to introduce parallel and distributed computing topics into the undergraduate curricula, including quality criteria for parallel algorithms and programs, scalability, parallel performance, fault tolerance, and energy efficiency analysis. The chapters designed for students serve as supplemental textual material for early computing core courses, which students can use for learning and exercises. The illustrations, examples, and sequences of smaller steps to build larger concepts are also tools that could be inserted into existing instructor material. The chapters intended for instructors are written at a teaching level and serve as a rigorous reference to include learning goals, advice on presentation and use of the material, within early and advanced undergraduate courses. Since Parallel and Distributed Computing (PDC) now permeates most computing activities, imparting a broad-based skill set in PDC technology at various levels in the undergraduate educational fabric woven by Computer Science (CS) and Computer Engineering (CE) programs as well as related computational disciplines has become essential. This book and others in this series aim to address the need for lack of suitable textbook support for integrating PDC-related topics into undergraduate courses, especially in the early curriculum. The chapters are aligned with the curricular guidelines promulgated by the NSF/IEEE-TCPP Curriculum Initiative on Parallel and Distributed Computing for CS and CE students and with the CS2013 ACM/IEEE Computer Science Curricula. Front Matter ....Pages i-vi Editors’ Introduction and Roadmap (Sushil K. Prasad, Anshul Gupta, Arnold L. Rosenberg, Alan Sussman, Charles Weems)....Pages 1-20 Front Matter ....Pages 21-21 What Do We Need to Know About Parallel Algorithms and Their Efficient Implementation? (Vladimir Voevodin, Alexander Antonov, Vadim Voevodin)....Pages 23-58 Modules for Teaching Parallel Performance Concepts (Apan Qasem)....Pages 59-77 Scalability in Parallel Processing (Yanik Ngoko, Denis Trystram)....Pages 79-109 Energy Efficiency Issues in Computing Systems (Krishna Kant)....Pages 111-141 Scheduling for Fault-Tolerance: An Introduction (Guillaume Aupy, Yves Robert)....Pages 143-170 Front Matter ....Pages 171-171 MapReduce – The Scalable Distributed Data Processing Solution (Bushra Anjum)....Pages 173-190 The Realm of Graphical Processing Unit (GPU) Computing (Vivek K. Pallipuram, Jinzhu Gao)....Pages 191-241 Managing Concurrency in Mobile User Interfaces with Examples in Android (Konstantin Läufer, George K. Thiruvathukal)....Pages 243-285 Parallel Programming for Interactive GUI Applications (Nasser Giacaman, Oliver Sinnen)....Pages 287-312 Scheduling in Parallel and Distributed Computing Systems (Srishti Srivastava, Ioana Banicescu)....Pages 313-337