Abstract
We show how the speed of a BSP (Bulk Synchronous Par-allel) computer depends on the parameters p, g, and l of the model. According to the values of parameters, BSP belongs among the first (sequential) or the second (parallel) class models or neither of these classes. The relation between BSP and the class of weak parallel machines is also examined. It turns out that BSP does not fit to the concept of weak (or pipelined) parallelism. Consequences of membership in different machine classes to the physical feasibility of BSP computers are discussed. The main conclusion is that BSP with parameters properly chosen qualifies itself as a practical model, but it is unable to exploit all the parallelism allowed by laws of physics.
This research was partly supported by the grant of the GA CR No. 201/98/0717, by the EU grant INCO-COOP 96-0195 ‘ALTEC-KIT’, and by the grant of the Ministry of Education of CR No. OK-304. 293
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Gianfranco Bilardi and Franco P. Preparata. Horizons of Parallel Computation. Technical Report CS-93-20, Department of Computer Science, Universita di Padova, 1993.
A. K. Chandra, D. C. Kozen, and L.J. Stockmayer. Alternation. Journal of the ACM, 28:114–133, 1981.
L. M. Goldschager. A Universal Interconnection Pattern for Parallel Computers. Journal of the ACM, 29:1073–1086, 1982.
Harvard BSP group. http://www.deas.harvard.edu/csecse/research/bsp.html
Klaus-Jörn Lange. On the Distributed Realization of Parallel Algorithms. In Proc. of SOFSEM’ 97, volume 1338 of Lecture Notes in Computer Science, pages 37–52. Springer-Verlag, 1997.
W. F. McColl. General Purpose Parallel Computing. In A. M. Gibbons and P. Spirakis, editors, Lectures on parallel Coputation. Proc. 1991 ALCOM Spring School on Parallel Computation, pages 337–391. Cambridge University Press, 1993.
Rolf Niedermeier. Towards Realistic and Simple Models of Parallel Computation. PhD thesis, FakultÄt für Informatik, Eberhard-Karls=UniversitÄt Tübingen, Tübingen, 1996. http://www-fs.informatik.uni-tuebingen.de/niedermr/publications/di2.ps.Z
Oxford BSP research group. http://www.comlab.ox.ac.uk/oucl/groups/bsp/
Leslie G. Valiant. A Bridging Model for Parallel Computation. Communications of the ACM, 33(8):103–111, 1990.
P. van Emde Boas. Machine Models and Simulations. Handbook of Theoretical Computer Science, A:1–66, 1990.
JiŘà Wiedermann. Weak Parallel Machines: A New Class of Physically Feasible Parallel Machine Models. In I. M. Havel and V. Koubek, editors, Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science 1992, 17th Int. Symposium (MFCS’92), volume 629 of Lecture Notes in Computer Science, pages 95–111, Berlin, 1992. Springer-Verlag.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1998 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Beran, M. (1998). Computational Power of BSP Computers. In: Rovan, B. (eds) SOFSEM’ 98: Theory and Practice of Informatics. SOFSEM 1998. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 1521. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-49477-4_20
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-49477-4_20
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-65260-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-49477-5
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive