24.1 Understanding high performance computing  (Page 5/6)

Learner appropriate activities

High Performance Computing is impacting how we do everything. Learning, working, even our relaxation and entertainment are impacted by HPC. To help more people understand HPC, I have listed appropriate activities based on where a learner is in relation to their programming skills.

Computer literacy but no programming skills

We have provided two computer programs that help students see the impact of parallel processing. The first is a "Linear to Parallel Calculator" where the student enters how long it would take one person to complete a task, asks how many people will work as a group on the task, then calculates how long it will take the group to complete the task. The second is a "Parallel Speed Demonstration Program" that simulates parallel processing. It displays to the monitor the first 60 factorial numbers in 60 seconds, then shows as if 10 processors are doing it in 6 seconds, then as if 100 processors are doing it in less than 1 second. Both are compiled and ready for use on an Intel CPU machine (compiled for use on Windows OS).

Download the executable file from Connexions: Linear to Parallel Calculator

Download the executable file from Connexions: Parallel Speed Demonstration Program

An interesting activity would be to join a group that is using thousands of personal microcomputers via Internet connections for parallel processing. Several distributed processing projects are listed in the "FLOPS" article on Widipedia. One such group is the "Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search - GIMPS".

A link to the GIMPS web site is: (External Link)

Another activity is to "Google" some keywords. Be careful - "Googling" can be confusing and often can be difficult to focus on the precise subject that you want.

• high performance computing
• computational science
• supercomputing
• distributed processing

Learning programming fundamentals

Students learning to program that are currently taking courses in Modular/Structured programming and/or Object Oriented programming might want to review the source code files for the demonstration programs listed above. These programs do not do parallel programming, but the student could modify or improve them to better explain parallel programming concepts.

You may need to right click on the link and select "Save Target As" in order to download these source code files.

Download the source code file from Connexions: Linear to Parallel Calculator

Download the source code file from Connexions: Parallel Speed Demonstration Program

Another appropriate activity is to "Google" some of the key words listed above. With your fundamental understanding of programming, you will understand more of the materials than those with no programming experience. You should get a sense that parallel programming is becoming a more important part of a computer professional’s work and career.

Review the "Top 500 Super Computers" at: (External Link)

Look at the source code listings provided in the next section, but remember, you cannot compile or run these on your normal computer.