The Beta Operation: A Parallel Primitive
Abstract
The ever-decreasing cost of computer processors has created a great interest in multiprocessor computers. However, along the increased power that this parallelism brings, comes increased complexity in programming. One approach to lessening this complexity is to provide the programmer with general purpose parallel primitives that shield him from the structure of the underlying machine. There are two contending goals that must be satisfied when designing primitives. On one hand we would like to make the primitives as general and abstract as possible. The more general a primitive is, the more easily it can be used as a building block for creating complex algorithmic constructs. On the other hand, we want to avoid making the primitive so general that it becomes inefficient. In The Connection Machine, Hillis suggests that the beta operation as a parallel primitives for his hypercube-based machine. We shall examine the beta operation, demonstrate its efficiency, generalize it in several directions, and show its suitability for general use.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Nov 01, 1988
- Accession Number
- ADA204463
Entities
People
- Evan R. Cohn
Organizations
- Stanford University