Postgraduate Course: Threaded Programming (EPCD11003)
Course Outline
| School | School of Informatics |
College | College of Science and Engineering |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
| Course type | Online Distance Learning |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 10 |
ECTS Credits | 5 |
| Summary | *This is an Online Learning course designed to be taken primarily by Online Learning students (usually within EPCC or Data Science Technology and Innovation). On-campus students interested in the material should refer to EPCC11003 Threaded Programming which runs on-campus in Semester 1*
This course is a practical introduction to parallel programming using the threading model, which is commonly used on shared memory and multicore hardware. The majority of the course is focused on teaching the use of the industry standard OpenMP API. |
| Course description |
After taking this course students should have a good practical understanding of multithreaded programming and be competent OpenMP programmers.
The course will cover the following topics:
- Basic concepts of shared memory: threads, tasks, shared/private data, synchronisation.
- Concepts of OpenMP: parallel regions, shared/private variables, parallel loops, reductions
- OpenMP parallel regions and associated clauses
- OpenMP worksharing directives, scheduling of parallel loops
- OpenMP synchronisation: barriers, critical sections, atomics, locks.
- OpenMP tasks
- Additional features of OpenMP: nesting, orphaning, threadprivate globals, OpenMP 4.0 features
- OpenMP implementations
- Memory models.
Lecture-based content is supplemented with live sessions to discuss and provide assistance with practical exercises which illustrate the key concepts. Students will have the choice of using either C or Fortran in the practical programming sessions on OpenMP.
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Course Delivery Information
|
| Academic year 2024/25, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
|
Quota: None |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
| Course Start Date |
13/01/2025 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
100
(
Online Activities 30,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 2,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
68 )
|
| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
|
| Additional Information (Assessment) |
100% Coursework, split into separate hand-ins (usually two or three depending on specific assignment breakdown in a given year). |
| Feedback |
Students receive detailed individual text-based feedback on all components of the coursework. The coursework is split into two parts, with feedback given on the first part before students are expected to start work on the second part. Students are very welcome contact the course team to discuss the feedback. Feedback also provided through live discussion sessions. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Understand the key concepts of multithreaded programming
- Utilise, explain and interpret the syntax and semantics of the OpenMP API
- Write a correct OpenMP program in C/C++ or Fortran
- Describe the advanced features of OpenMP
- Evaluate and analyse performance of threaded programs with an understanding of key factors
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Reading List
https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/using-openmp
https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/using-openmp%E2%80%94-next-step
Further resources provided via Learn course/Leganto |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Effective written and diagrammatic communication.
Technical writing.
Data collection and analysis.
Reflection on learning and practice.
Adaptation to circumstances.
Solution Exploration, Evaluation and Prioritisation.
Programming. |
| Keywords | OpenMP,Threads,TP,EPCC,HPC,High Performance Computing,Parallel,Programming,Parallelism,Computation |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Mark Bull
Tel: (0131 6)50 6717
Email: markb@epcc.ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Mr James Richards
Tel: 90131 6)51 3578
Email: J.Richards@epcc.ed.ac.uk |
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