High Performance Computing Demystified

High Performance Computing Demystified provides an overview of high performance resources and their applications across many disciplines. This book is organized into five parts encompassing 16 chapters that cover the principles, mode of operation, and practical aspects of supercomputers.

The first and second parts provide a brief history of high performance computing and describe the "basic parts needed to build high performance computers, including high performance microprocessors and network topologies. The third part examines the features of multiprocessor architectures of high performance, such as the large number crunchers, massively parallel processing machines, and networks of workstations. The fourth part deals with the software paradigms for high performance, while the fifth part looks into the high performance computing resources that are available to the public, with some guide to accessing those resources.

This book is intended primarily for engineers and business managers who have a basic understanding of computers and would like to learn about high performance computing.

Autorentext

David Loshin is President of Knowledge Integrity, Inc., a company specializing in data management consulting. The author of numerous books on performance computing and data management, including "Master Data Management" (2008) and "Business Intelligence - The Savvy Manager's Guide" (2003), and creator of courses and tutorials on all facets of data management best practices, David is often looked to for thought leadership in the information management industry.

Inhalt

Foreword
Preface
I Introduction and History
1 Introduction
1.1 Introduction
1.2 What Is High Performance?
1.3 Who Uses High Performance Computers?
1.4 Analysis Metrics
1.5 Structure
2 History
2.1 The History of High Performance
2.2 Classes of High Performance Machines
2.3 Vector Processing
2.4 Multiprocessor Supercomputers
2.5 Advances in Microprocessor Design
2.6 The Future: Putting It Together
II Computer Architectures
3 High Performance on a Chip
3.1 Killer Micros
3.2 What Makes a High Performance Chip?
3.3 How Processors Are Made Fast
3.4 RISC Machines
3.5 The Memory Bottleneck
3.6 Conclusion
4 Topological Issues
4.1 Connectivity
4.2 Switches
4.3 Topologies and Routing
4.4 Network Functionality
4.5 New Trends in Communications
III Multiple Processor Architectures
5 Vector Processors
5.1 Pipelined Supercomputers
5.2 Vector Instructions
5.3 Early Pipelined Computers: Examples
5.4 Later Pipelined Computers
5.5 Attached Processors
5.6 New Directions
6 Multiprocessor Machines
6.1 Parallelism
6.2 Coordination and Synchronization
6.3 Memory Models
6.4 Programming Models
6.5 Hardware Issues
7 Collections of Workstations
7.1 The Cluster Model
7.2 Networks of Workstations
7.3 Future Goals
7.4 Example
8 I/O
8.1 Introduction
8.2 RAID
8.3 Internal Parallel I/O Systems
8.4 External I/O Systems
8.5 Conclusion
IV Software Issues
9 Software
9.1 Languages
9.2 Compilers
9.3 Operating Systems
9.4 Message Passing Systems
9.5 Reliability in Distributed Systems
V High Performance Applications
10 Models of Physical Systems
10.1 Introduction
10.2 The Need for High Performance
10.3 Heat Conduction
10.4 Fluid Flow
10.5 Methods for Solving the Equations
10.6 Problem Decomposition
10.7 Other Applications
10.8 Conclusion
11 Seismic Applications
11.1 Introduction
11.2 The Need for High Performance
11.3 Seismic Exploration
11.4 Seismic Processing
11.5 Analysis of Geophysical Data
11.6 Reservoir Modeling
11.7 Summary
12 Biology and Artificial Life
12.1 Biology and High Performance Computing
12.2 Computational Biochemistry
12.3 Neural Networks
12.4 Memory-Based Reasoning
12.5 Artificial Life
12.6 Conclusion
13 Business Applications
13.1 Introduction
13.2 Large Database Applications
13.3 Decision Support
13.4 Data Mining and Micromarketing
13.5 Intelligent Business Software
13.6 Example in Parallelization: Options Pricing
13.7 Conclusion
14 Optimization
14.1 Introduction
14.2 The Need for High Performance
14.3 Formalization
14.4 The Simplex Method
14.5 Airline Crew Pairing
14.6 Portfolio Management
14.7 Summary
15 Graphics and Visualization
15.1 Introduction
15.2 The Need for High Performance
15.3 A Graphics Technique: Ray Tracing
15.4 Parallel Graphics Processing
15.5 Specialized Hardware: SGI's RealityEngine
15.6 Visualization
15.7 Virtual Reality
VI Availability
16 Conclusion
16.1 Timely, Timeless, or What?
16.2 National Laboratories
16.3 Hard Copy Publications
16.4 Online Information
16.5 Manufacturers
Glossary
Bibliography
Index