Class 1: Implementation: SGI Power Challenge

Announcements:

1. I now have a few links setup to html documents describing projects. I'm still missing quite a few, and expect to see them today or tomorrow. Let me know if you have problems with the html conversion.
2. You will receive feedback on your second project document draft. Please include them and submit a third draft (final solution design draft) next week.
3. For those of you doing group projects, please attach a ``distribution of work'' description that tells me what each of you has contributed.
4. Some of you have had questions about the ``?'' response that LaTeX generates on errors. You can then look up the <filename>.log file for the exact error messages.
5. The Power Challenge User's Guide is available online at NCSA, but I also have some extra hard-copies. I'll hand these out in class-please share them.

In the first part of this class, we will talk about including references in your LaTeX document using BiBTeX. Also, we will discuss any questions that might arise regarding creating your documents (both hardcopy and html versions). If anyone would like a sample .bib file, please let me know by email.

We will begin today's class by completing our discussion on dynamic interconnection networks. This was the part that we could not get to last week. This discussion will include crossbar switches, reconfigurable meshes, and multi-stage interconnection networks.

At this stage, you should be pretty close to finishing the design of the parallel solution to your problem-at least the parts that you can achieve without deciding on a particular machine. Now, we will start talking about the machines available to us, and you can decide on which one will be best suited to solve your particular problem.

This leads us to the Implementation phase described by the UCES paradigm. To start this discussion, we will first need to discuss the specifics of how to use the machines available to us in this class. We will start with a discussion about the SGI Power Challenge. Most of this discussion will be based on the online Power Challenge Users Manual at NCSA. There is also a useful Frequently Asked Questions list available online.

Most of this material is factual, and you will have to read it up on your own. I will provide pointers in class for you to follow up.