Dr. Dobb's Blogs

Game of Life — Distributed Lists

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 20:25:00 -0400

I want to take one more look at the parallelized list-based version of the Game of Life simulation.

Game of Life — Using Threads and Lists, Part 3

Fri, 24 May 2013 07:28:00 -0400

If I'm programming my list-based version of Game of Life in the real world, how can I parallelize it when I am using a third-party provided data structure?

Game of Life — Using Threads and Lists, Part 1

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 05:56:00 -0400

I'm still looking at the Game of Life simulation.

Game of Life — Using Lists to Focus Processing

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 16:28:00 -0400

Let's discuss the basic parts to code the Game of Life using list data structure to hold the sets of grid points that may become alive or may die in the next generation.

Game of Life — Avoiding Deserted Areas

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 11:21:00 -0500

The default version of the Game of Life that I've discussed recently feels a lot like the search for an elephant in Africa.

How to Distribute the Game of Life

Sat, 29 Dec 2012 09:11:00 -0500

Do you have a very large grid that you want to use in a simulation and the grid doesn't fit into the memory of a single node? If so, learning how to develop a distributed memory version of the Game of Life may be a practical solution.

Game of Life Distributed: Preamble

Mon, 17 Dec 2012 16:58:00 -0500

I want to do a rudimentary review of distributed memory parallelism and message passing libraries. (I've only written about shared memory parallelism to this point and I want to make sure we're all using the same vocabulary.)

Conway's Game of Life In Parallel

Wed, 05 Dec 2012 05:44:00 -0500

The iconic game is perfectly suited to parallel execution. This series of posts looks at several approaches — from OpenMP to message passing — that improve the game's performance.

Energy Efficient Programming

Wed, 14 Nov 2012 09:18:00 -0500

Efficient use of energy is a big deal in mobile and cloud computing.

Parallel Shellsort

Mon, 08 Oct 2012 07:25:00 -0400

I'll start with a review of Insertion Sort and then take a look at the Shellsort variation and how I would make it parallel.

You've Got Parallel Code in My Chocolate

Fri, 14 Sep 2012 06:32:00 -0400

My take on a parallel Depth-First Search (DFS) algorithm visits all nodes in a graph and the order of visitation is likely to change from one run to the next.

You've Got Serial Code in my Peanut Butter

Fri, 07 Sep 2012 15:45:00 -0400

"When you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail."

Finding My Summer Vacation's Shortest Path

Tue, 21 Aug 2012 06:40:00 -0400

Think of a map as an instance of a graph, the cities are the nodes and the roads between cities are the edges.

"Task Parallelism Does Not Exist"

Mon, 30 Jul 2012 20:53:00 -0400

Even though you might initially come up with a task parallel algorithm, you should take some time to see if a reworking of the algorithm or the data representation can better facilitate a more data-parallel version.

Is the Future Fine-Grained Or Coarse-Grained Parallelism?

Thu, 19 Jul 2012 13:37:00 -0400

Coarse-grained parallelism might well be on the cusp of wide popularity, but multithreading is sure to become integral to most programming.

Implementing Partition with Prefix Scan

Tue, 10 Jul 2012 21:39:00 -0400

In this post, I present one implementation of the Quicksort algorithm using OpenMP for the first level of task parallelism and Intel Threading Building Blocks (TBB) to give me manycore parallel operations.

Quicksort Partition via Prefix Scan

Mon, 02 Jul 2012 16:52:00 -0400

I'm going to describe how to put into effect the partition functionality of the Quicksort algorithm using the Prefix Scan operation.

The Mystery and Magic of Prefix Scan

Thu, 07 Jun 2012 14:58:00 -0400

Prefix Scan might be considered an elemental parallel computation. This operation computes all partial sums of a vector of values resulting in a vector, the same size as the original vector, where each element is the sum of the preceding elements in the original vector up to the corresponding position.

The Long and Short of Parallelism

Wed, 23 May 2012 06:16:00 -0400

Ten years ago, multi-core processors were just on the horizon. Today they are mainstream and have become the impetus for a revolution in computer programming that can make best use of the two, four, six, or eight cores.

The Tell-Tale Compiler

Thu, 10 May 2012 19:49:00 -0400

In this post, I want to remind you to consider issues that your parallel code can encounter from the compiler.

The Pit and the Parallelism: Memory Models

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 13:16:00 -0400

When I analyze parallel algorithms and how independent threads interact with each other across shared resources, I use the assumption of sequential consistency.

Insert Your Own Clever Bubblesort Pun

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 07:56:00 -0400

Here we go with my data decomposition parallel code for Bubblesort.

BubbleSort Won't Leave a Bathtub Ring

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 10:43:00 -0400

I thought this was going to be my third and final post about parallelizing Bubblesort. However, my last idea on the subject went a bit long in the explanation. Therefore, some setup here and code in the next post.

How Not to Pop Your Bubblesort with Threads

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 04:43:00 -0500

This post will just be a straight examination of the parallel code based on the ideas put forth in my previous post, with only one allusion to submarines and Scottish gentlemen.

Bubble, BubbleSort, and Trouble

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 19:29:00 -0500

Bubblesort was the first sorting algorithm that I ever learned (and I programmed it in COBOL). It is easy to code and simple to understand.