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DRPS : Course Catalogue : School of Informatics : Informatics - Distance Learning

Postgraduate Course: Advanced Parallel Techniques (INFD11023)

Course Outline
SchoolSchool of Informatics CollegeCollege of Science and Engineering
Credit level (Normal year taken)SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate)
Course typeOnline Distance Learning AvailabilityNot available to visiting students
SCQF Credits10 ECTS Credits5
SummaryThe majority of current HPC applications are parallelised using a combination of message-passing (the MPI library) or threading (OpenMP directives). As HPC systems grow in size and complexity, other software approaches are now being used to aid performance portability, scalability and maintainability.

This course will cover a range of more advanced and upcoming technologies for parallel computing. Key paradigms include:
- programming of accelerators including graphics processing units (GPUs);
- threading approaches other than OpenMP;
- partitioned global address space (PGAS) approaches;
- programming languages important in HPC; and,
- understanding how to select the appropriate techniques given the problem and hardware at hand.
Course description Example of topics that will be covered include:
Languages: modern C++, Python (and interfacing with compiled code)
Threading: pthreads, C++ & boost threads, Intel TBB
Accelerators/GPUs: CUDA, OpenCL, OpenMP target directives, OpenACC
PGAS: Fortran coarrays, OpenSHMEM, MPI single sided
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations Other requirements None
Course Delivery Information
Not being delivered
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
  1. Understand advanced paradigms for parallelism used in HPC
  2. Have knowledge of several implementations of these paradigms
  3. Be able to write correct and performant programs
  4. Use established and emerging programming languages to express parallel programs
  5. Understand how to select the appropriate tools and techniques for various parallel architectures and algorithms
Reading List
None
Additional Information
Graduate Attributes and Skills Collaborative working.
Effective written and diagrammatic communication.
Reflection on learning and practice.
Adaptation to circumstances.
Special Arrangements This course is for Online Learning students. On-campus students should instead see INFR11170 - Advanced Parallel Techniques
KeywordsAdvanced Parallel Techniques,HPC,APT,EPCC,Parallelism,HPC,High Performance Computing,PGAS,Online
Contacts
Course organiserDr Rupert Nash
Tel: (0131) 6 517 112
Email: r.nash@epcc.ed.ac.uk
Course secretaryMr James Richards
Tel: 90131 6)51 3578
Email: J.Richards@epcc.ed.ac.uk
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