The Scalability of Loop-Level Parallelism
Abstract
This report deals with the four main constraints on the scalability of programs parallelized using loop-level parallelism They are as follows: (1) The available parallelism in the algorithm. (2) The availability and scalability of appropriate hardware (including the operating system and the compilers). (3) Limitations in the design of the hardware. (4) The cost of getting into and out of a parallel section of code. This, in turn, will lead to two important discussions: (1) the theoretical limitations on the scalability of shared memory codes; and (2) the role that the choice of hardware and usage policies play in determining the performance of a shared memory code. These discussions will include examples from the author's own work in porting the implicit computational fluid dynamics code F3D from the Cray C90 to a variety of shared memory platforms.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Aug 01, 2001
- Accession Number
- ADA393424
Entities
People
- Daniel M. Pressel
Organizations
- United States Army Research Laboratory