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Computational Power of BSP Computers

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SOFSEM’ 98: Theory and Practice of Informatics (SOFSEM 1998)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 1521))

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

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© 1998 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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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

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-49477-4_20

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-65260-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-49477-5

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